<prompt> Human: I had a question related to my ex and a medical collections account. I searched but couldnt find a similar situation. Im looking for some advice of what my steps should be. Thanks in advance for anything you can provide.Background: I had been separated from my ex-wife from Oct 2011 until this past January when we became legally divorced. She has always had separate insurance from me, even when we were married. Everything in this situation occurred in California.I recently checked my credit report and found an account in collections for over 2k. I had never been contacted about anything remotely close to this so my fist instinct was that it was a complete mistake.In passing I mentioned this to my ex-wife and she told me that she had been getting contacted by a collections agency for a while but she was ignoring it because her credit was bad anyway. According to her, at some point after we separated but not yet divorced, she went to the emergency room for some pain. She provided identity and insurance information and waited in the waiting room for a few hours and was eventually called back. She was placed in a bed and her vitals were taken weight, blood pressure, etc. She waited there for a doctor for another 2 hours without being seen. At that point she walked out. Its unclear if she told anyone.Down the road she started getting mailers to pay the debt and she again ignored them. She doesnt want to do anything to take care of the collection.On my end, I would like to get this off my report, but Im not sure how to go about doing it. The collections agency has made no apparent effort to contact me about this, yet they have added it to my credit report. I wouldnt be that hard to find since I have been applying for credit under the same phone number for the last 15 years.I dont know if this would be considered a valid debt against even my ex-wife if they were trying to charge her for services not performed.What is everyones suggestion? Again, thanks in advance for your help.tl;dr Collections on credit report from ex-wife. She claims its not a valid debt. Collections never contacted me about the debt.  <response>: California is a community property state so were you legally separated at the time. If so you should be able to dispute this collection notice on your Credit Report with the bureaus by providing proof of this to the bureaus when you file a dispute.I do not know if California has this or not but, if the collector is really sharp they could be using the necessities rule to tie to you. This in one way around a minor not being responsible for a debt and going after a minor for medical treatment.Some community property states have an exclusion for, the not being responsible while separated rule, called the Family Necessities rule. If it is a Family Necessities you can still be held responsible for debts she incurs while separated. I know that is used to make minors pay medical debt.I get the feeling the easy answer is they did not know or find out you were legally separated though as that is pretty obscure rule. 