My question involves divorce in the State of: Washington

Background: My ex and I split 2.5 years ago and got the divorce done 2 years ago. We went thru a paralegal as there were no children involved and we were trying to keep it simple. We each kept our retirements, sold the house in which we split 60 (her) 40 (me). Out of my 40% came all realtor fees, tax, escrow, etc. We had no saved money to speak of to divide, I kept my truck and she got my car in which I was to pay the balance of (9,000 @ 0% thru Nissan USA). I paid off her credit card - bal of 3,455.00 and an overdrawn checking account at WaMu of 822.63. She got 100% of household furnishings/goods - I even moved them all for her, and I paid for the divorce.

Last summer Nissan returned my payments stating that the balance of 6,300 had been paid in full. Because of the divorce I was no longer on the account and could find out no further information. I tried to contact my ex to see what the deal was, but was unable to make contact with her. I figured she traded it in on something nicer.

Everything has been fine since that point in time until two weeks ago when I received a l letter from an attorney across the state telling me that I owed her 6,300 and change. Seems as though the car was lost in a fire and the insurance paid out, that was the balance remaining. The result was she wanted her money back. I did some digging of my own and found that she received just over 15k for a car that I only paid 14k for that was KBB at just over 7k - how this worked I have no idea... The letter from the attorney made reference to "enclosed" documents such as insurance papers, divorce papers, etc. none of which were inclosed. I wrote back very politely stating that I hoped no one was hurt in the fire and asking for these documents prior to being able to pay anything out.

I contacted two attorneys, both of which told me to "pay her" since it wasn't worth the money to try and fight it. My issue here is that I feel as though I've been more than fair with the whole divorce and shouldn't have to. Wa is a 50/50 state and this wasn't the case in our divorce - she got way more than that. I have no idea why the car burned - Negligence on her part? Accident? It broke down so she burned it? She fell asleep smoking? If I was to pay her, she would have then received over 21k for a car valued at 1/3 that - this seems fraudulent to me.

Any thoughts on where to go from here? I've not yet received a letter back from the attorney and no official lawsuit has been filed to the best of my knowledge. I'd like to try and deal with this myself for the time being if possible to avoid even more money paid out on this. I'm currently engaged and although my fiancee is understanding, it's embarrassing to have to deal with these types of issues.

Any thoughts or help would be appreciated,

mixedgasdiver