There’s no statute of limitations on threatening a lawsuit. It won’t be worth $48 for them to even consult with a lawyer to determine that you have no chance of winning said lawsuit.
Alternatively, send them a bill for pain and suffering (7-8 figures) plus the dental bill at the other place plus punitive damages… get it into the $20 million plus range, and then very carefully subtract $48 from what they owe you and ask when you can expect to receive payment.
Or, better yet, explain to them that in 2014 they agreed to write off the $48 due to their cockup. Reneging on that arrangement results in setting a new statute of limitations on the malpractice, which you expect to be an 8 figure amount.
(I have no idea if that’s true or not, but it might be and will surely scare them into writing off the $48.)
Or just ignore it. My suggestions are if you want to f*** with them.
I didn’t get the return receipt but USPS confirmed it was delivered. 
I wasn’t planning to sue for malpractice at this point, but I was curious whether it could be a threat to them. I googled, and the statute of limitations here is extremely short. You need to bring suit within 2 years of injury with a few exceptions that don’t apply in this case.
Do you think they know that?
It’s their business, so they would be stupid not to. They probably don’t know that then.
I assume they’re legally past the point of being able to collect this, but even if that’s correct I wouldn’t sleep on this. Would be a pain if they send it to collections.
Since nobody will remember you from 9 years ago, I’d send a nice Certified/Read Receipt letter gently reminding them that they agreed to waive the remaining balance in exchange for you to drop the matter of your tooth and at some point, speak to a manager to confirm it’s waived.
Quick question,
If you respond to them, don’t you aknowledge the debt?
Seems like they are fishing for a response so restart the clock (for statute of limitations)
I’m betting it is a simple program that is sending out mass mailing to all past clients where a receivable is showing up in their system. It has never been written off on the chance that one returns to the practice.
This is absolutely uncollectible.
For all they know, this went in my spam folder and I didn’t see it. If they send me a real bill via USPS I will dispute it.
Oh LOL, I’m sorry I missed that it was just an email. No contact, for sure.
So the collection agency received my dispute, said that the debt collection laws don’t apply to taxes and that the state doesn’t grant them the authority to negotiate or write down taxes. My tax lawyer cousin said that there was nothing I could do at this point except suck it up. A giant middle finger to the town of West Hartford for waiting this long to send me a tax bill and letting a collection agency get rich off their incompetence.
Don’t talk to the collection agency. Talk to the tax people. THEY are authorized to negotiate the penalties down.
Once it goes to a collection agency, hasn’t the town already been paid (by the collection agency)? Not sure what you could then negotiate with the town.
I doubt it. I assume the arrangement with the collection agency is “you keep X% of what you collect and remit (1-X)% back to us.”
While I’d trust a tax lawyer over us internet randos, and I’d have to question whether the effort of pursuing this any further is worth the chance of a potential savings… it’s probably worth asking: they can’t negotiate the tax debt…but could they negotiate the late fees/interest? After all, they were incurred in part because they did not pursue the matter in a timely manner.
Regardless, I’d suggest separately sending a complaint, focusing on the tardiness, to the Connecticut Attorney General’s office and the Connecticut Department of Banking: File a Consumer Collection Agency Complaint Maybe submit a complaint to local media too, e.g.: Submit a tip – NBC Connecticut
West Hartford’s tax office webpage explicitly instructs people who have been contacted by the collection agency to respond to the agency rather than the town tax folks.
+1
Thanks, good advice, my lawyer said that there were possible channels to pursue but warned me that it was much easier to deal with the IRS than municipalities. And the notice from the collection agency was that the interest/fees could not be negotiated either. FWIW might as well file the complaints, doubt it will do anything though.
I believe a typical debt collector purchases debt for, say, $0.07 per dollar and then the debt belongs to them.
From there it’s on the collector to get paid or not.