I am terribly upset; to make matters worse his son is threatening to have the police throw me in jail because I owe him 12,000 dollars. They say because he is older that borrowing the money constituted elder abuse. I know that they have no standing because of my implied and expressed intent is to pay the debt.
The original terms of the debt was that I would borrow the money to go to school and live on for a time. I would start paying the debt back when I got a job that would support a large monthly payment ($1000 a month) I would start payments until the debt is paid off. For this debt we both agreed not to sign a promissory note. I have the intent on paying this debt off per the original terms set up by my friend and me.
Now that he is in a coma in the hospital his family is demanding that I sign a promissory note and say that if I do not sign it they will report me to the police. To the best of my understanding the police will be unable to do anything because this is a civil matter. His family keeps calling me a scam artist and a cheat. I have made payments on this debt and I will continue to make 100 dollar a month payments until I can afford to pay more.
The Promissory note says that I will pay the 12,000 dollars over the next 24 months. This is downright unrealistic as I only have a minimum wage paying job. They want me to continue the 100 dollar a month payments and then next year they want me to make 1,000 dollar a month payments. I have told them I will try to find employment that would pay me enough to live on and to pay them however they say without a promissory they will have me arrested.
They are also not recognizing some of the work I did for my friend as payment when both my friend and I agreed I would key punch for him and handle a few accounts to help pay this debt back at the rate if ten dollars a hour. To date I have repaid around 3,000 dollars of my 15,000 debt.
As of now all I have that is binding is word of mouth between my friend and I. I have talked to his wife and told her I would pay her what I owe my friend. My friend said if something were to happen to him I would pay his wife what I owe him.
The person causing the problem is his oldest son.
My questions are the following.
Do I have to sign a promissory note?
Could they change the terms of a debt without my approval?
If they keep cashing the checks I send them can they start a civil suit?
They have threatened to take my car from me even thought I still owe 2500 dollars on it, Can they take my car? If so could I report it stolen without it being an act of malicious prosecution?
They say that my work for my friend was simply “doing a friend a favor” and doesn’t constitute repayment for any part of this debt. Can they ignore the estimated 3000 dollars worth of work I have done when taking this issue to court?

