More details to this question:
I gave up my home to move in with my elderly mother to help take care of her. While I was living with her I was taking care of her finances as far as shopping and paying her bills. I also have 2 children and my husband lived with her. My older brother made accusations of my children mistreating her and me stealing her money. My aunt and uncle came in and removed my mother from the home and took over her finances. While they were reviewing her account they accused me of stealing money from her simply if she stated she didn't remember the purchase. They are accusing me of over $60,000 and made me sign a promissory note stating I owed this money have to pay it back. They have provided no proof of this money owed and were saying they would have me arrested if I didn't sign the note. I have not been in any trouble before and did not know what to do so I signed it but it is not my legal name. I am not sure what I can do at this point but I know this is wrong. Any help or direction
1 ANSWER
Once you signed the note, you became legally obligated to pay (the name doesn't matter; you admit that you signed the note). The only way to avoid that obligation is to have the note invalidated by a court. You may have a chance (not a good chance, in my opinion based on what littlle I know about the matter, but a chance) to do so if you file a lawsuit claiming that the note should be invalidated because you were under duress when you signed it. If you succeed in getting the note invalidated, that doesn't mean that you owe no money, You can still be charged with theft if the authorities think that such charges are warranted, and your mother (or someone appointed to act on her behalf) could sue you in civil court claiming that you stole it.
Answered on Jan 24th, 2019 at 11:40 AM