Hypothetical situation (of course!)

Say there is a situation where two best friends used the barter system for each others talents and services over the years of their friendship without invoicing each other as it worked out to be even in each others minds over time.

Enter personal problems with the friends' spouses which ended up curtailing the friends time spent together drastically.

Friend A is left carrying Friend B's expenses as these are ongoing and costly(somewhat) out of pocket expenses.

Friend B is no longer contributing his "share" of services and help and is unlikely to in the future.

IF$ spent by Friend A for Friend B's ongoing expenses ended now and there was no more money out of pocket, to keep peace, Friend A would say it is even.

This is not happening and in order to remove Friend B's expenses it would result in further breakdown of friendship. Friend A objects to being blindsided with invoice. Friend A realizes the small sum of $ is a pittance, but objects due to the principle of it.

To compound matters, Friend Bs spouse has begun to mail invoices to Friend A for a small sum of money(approximately $300.00) for material/services spent by Friend B. This invoice is uncalled for and due to inability to discuss invoice, Friend A has chosen to ignore invoice for 3 months as Friend A has no intention of paying it as well as Friend A had hoped to resolve issue with Friend B by calming discussing each others contributions. Friend B appeared to relent, indicating that his/her spouse is upset for other reasons and feels better to do this(i.e. revenge) An agreement was made to invoice one another for FUTURE out of pocket expenses but time/effort of each Friend was not to be invoiced. Friend A was led to believe that previous invoice was cancelled.

A few weeks pass and emails start arriving from Friend B's spouse saying you had better pay it is the least you can do after all that has been done for you. etc. etc. Friend A does not respond to Friend B's spouses emails as he prefers to talk to Friend B in person. Friend B's spouse is indicating via email(which was blocked by Friend A previously due to harrassing emails for another conflict) that further action will be taken if payment not made. These emails go directly into deleted item folder and have only been discovered by chance by Friend A.

Advice has been given to Friend A to protect their credit rating, standing in town, bad mouthing. This advice is for Friend A to mail an invoice via registered mail for equivalent sum for legitimate out of pocket expenses thereby legally rendering no $ payable and net of $0.00. Friend A disagrees. Friend A is upset at turn of events and inablity to discuss matters with Friend B who is suspected now of agreeing with spouse.

Friend A had prepared invoice to keep track of most of expenses and costs associated with ongoing expenses of Friend B. This invoice is for 50X the invoice amount given by Friend B. The expenses recorded are legitimate and are approximately equal to "potential" invoice that Friend B could give if provoked.

How does Friend A protect name, reputation and credit legally without giving full invoice amount for 50X $300.00. Friend A is still shouldering Friend Bs ongoing expenses and is extremely upset at being the one who has to be the "bad person" and end things.

I can be more specific via PT as I realize this is extremely vague. I trust that you can understand the gist of the situation and the emotional, financial, legal and social pressures that will erupt with mailing of equivalent invoice.