My dentist’s secretary called. She is not sure what happened, but they just received a $325 check from me in the mail that was dated August 2006! Since the check was obviously written to pay for services at the office and it was apparently never cashed, they want a new $325 check to pay for the services for which we haven’t paid. I searched through my financial records for 2006 and didn’t find any record of an outstanding bill to the dentist. My family has been going to the dentist regularly all this time and we were never told that we had an outstanding balance.
Q: Am I obligated to pay the dentist, since he has circumstantial evidence of an office visit for which we did not pay?
A: This question addresses the question of how much credibility we assign to financial records. Are they considered reliable? Can they be used to force one to pay? Shulchan Aruch (Choshen Mishpat 91:5) writes that a person’s financial records are considered reliable. This reliability is so strong that when there is additional evidence that lends credibility to the record, one may even collect from orphans. This is significant because Chazal took great pains to protect the financial interests of orphans since they are often ignorant about their father’s business dealings and not sophisticated/experienced enough to immediately understand the complexities of business. If financial records are sufficient to collect money from orphans, they must be considered definitive proof of a debt. Be’er Heitev (Choshen Mishpat 91:19) appends a fundamental qualification to this ruling. Shulchan Aruch’s ruling is limited to a person’s personal records to obligate himself. In other words, if a person keeps meticulous financial records, his own ledger can obligate him to pay a debt that by his own records he has not yet paid. Halacha does not, however, give weight to a person’s records that would obligate another person. Teshuvas Noda B’Yehudah (Choshen Mishpat Tinyana 15) cited in Pischei Teshuva (91:9) agrees and adds that recorded financial records, no matter how official they are, have no greater weight in halacha than the person’s verbal claim. Therefore, unless the dentist is able to produce stronger evidence that there is an unpaid bill, you are not obligated to replace the $325.