I am a lawyer in CT and practice in this area of the law. your son was old enough to have a judgment entered against him.  becasue he was driving the car he is joint and severally liable to the plaintiff - i.e. the creditor can come after you or your son for the full amount.  therefore, whatever money you still owed, he stil owed. 

I am a CA lawyer.  The answer is a bit more complicated.  While a minor can be sued, In CA, a minor must be served by giving a copy to their parent.  If this was not done, the judgment may be void or voidable.  Second, who owned the car?  If you did, there are certain limits that apply to a judgment.  Also, at that time, small claims had a limit of $5,000.  Not sure how it could almost double in only 5 yeras.  (in 10 yes, in 5 no).  I recommend that you pay for an hour of time with an attorney to seek legal advice for this issue.  Good luck 

I agree with my brother from California's advice and further I am of the opinion that unlicenced lawyers from out of state should not give legal advice where they are not licensed or perhaps they won't be in good standing much longer. Mr JMA is dead wrong, maybe right in Connecticut but I wouldn't know because I don't practice there and don't give advice on law where I am not licensed.

Small claims court is limited to $5K. If your some was a minor a guardian ad litem would have had to be appointed for matter to proceed. You as the owner have liability up to $15K just as owner unless there are other issues such as negligent entrustment.

Go see an attorney obviously one licensed in California and buy a couple hours of their time to figure out if they got a valid judgment against you.. Whatever you pay the attorney could save you a lot of money.

Assuming they have a valid judgment they can report you to a credit bureau and it will show up on your credit report, should’ on your son’s. He needs to write the bureau hat furnished the report a letter telling them he is not responsible and that they need to investigate and remove if they cannot confirm within the statutory period of time.

Again as a practical matter it seems like you don’t have a lot of money so why don’t you try to borrow some and make a settlement with this collection company. They know we live in hard times and money now is worth more than a promise to pay over how many months would it take??? Try offering them 10 cents on the dollar after you have made sure that they got a valid judgment. Also in the future show up to court dates. Collection agencies MO is to file suits and hope the defendant doesn’t show up and get a default like what happened with you. If you show up usually their lawyer wants to get out of there and is more willing to make a deal than when they have a judgment against you.

Good luck and hope that helps.