Company filed Lawsuit against me for something I shouldn’t be involved in

Location: Texas

Hello,

I was looking for some legal advice, I’m not very familiar with legal matters, so any help understanding this would be greatly appreciated.

A collections company is trying to sue me. Years ago, I was covered under my mother’s dental insurance, so I was listed under her account at the dental office. When I turned 26, and could no longer be on her insurance, a new account was created under my own name and information. This new account is not associated with my mother’s account in anyway, and is paid on time. Though both accounts show we live at the same address.

Here’s where things went wrong: my mother had an unpaid balance on her account that wasn’t for me rather for her and my kid siblings, and somehow her account was changed to display my name (with a misspelling of my last name, a letter was removed), while still using her date of birth and other personal information. As a result, it now looks like there are two dental accounts in my name, one that’s actually mine (which I always paid on time), and another that is hers, just mislabeled with my name. This isn’t an account we can just log into either. It’s something that’s just in their database.

We contacted the dental office years ago to explain the mix-up and asked them to correct the account to reflect that it was my mother’s, not mine multiple times. We were told it would be fixed, but mail continued to come addressed to me for the dental bill, even though the date of birth and other identifying information didn’t match mine. My mother became frustrated and told me not to worry about it since it wasn’t really connected to me and they didn’t even have my correct information. She also stated that she wasn’t going to pay it.

About a year later, the debt was passed to a collections agency. I received a letter warning that it could affect my credit, and I even received a phone call from them. They asked for me by name, and when I confirmed, they asked for my date of birth. I told them I was born in 1996, and they replied, “Wait, repeat your year of birth?” like they were confused. After I did, they said, “Sorry, we have the wrong person,” and hung up. From that point on, I thought the matter was behind me. Despite their threats, my credit has remained completely unaffected, no signs of this charge have ever shown up in any credit report. Because they don’t have any other accurate information other than my misspelled last name and address.

Fast forward to today, a year or two later, and I’ve received three different letters stating that a lawsuit has been filed against me under the same misspelled version of my last name. Once again, my mother insists it’s nothing to worry about, but I’m honestly starting to panic. I’m confident this relates to the $5,000 dental bill she owed, and I’m deeply concerned that even though the birth date and other info don’t match me, my name is being used.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any documentation to prove the mix-up, as I never expected it would come to this. My mother assured me there would be no consequences. The only things I know for sure are that they have my name and address, but not my birthday or other information. My credit report still shows no signs of this debt, which makes me believe they never got anything like my SSN, and with the misspelling of my name and mom’s DOB I don’t think they’d be able to get any other information. My mother is telling me we should fight for mistaken identity if they pursue, and not give out too much information as this debt isn’t associated with me to begin with. She even thinks we can countersue, idk how.

So what do y’all think? I’d also appreciate anyone’s opinion on whether y’all think I should seriously pursue legal representation for this matter.

Also my mother may have her stance but I appreciate her she has done so much and sacrificed so much for me, I rather not get any bad comments about her. She would even pay this debt just to clear my name, but she is a bit adamant that if there is a case we would win it