Most people have good intentions, those ones make it right eventually.
You said something that you need beware of, drnek, if he was granted bankruptcy you can never go against him - ever. You can't even mention it to him for fear that you will commit a crime. He can, if he wishes, pay you back - but it must be at his volition, and even then... most clients I suggest they send the money back because all it takes is for that person to dislike you for any reason and say "oh, but he demanded..." best case, in that case, is you have several thousand in attorney's fees; middle case is he goes to bankruptcy court and gets your debt listed, and you have to pay his attorney's fees to do so; worst case, you go to jail and owe him money for violation of bankruptcy statutes. It's funny, I was listening to a CLE (continued legal education) and the presenter made some comment about how she got around a bankruptcy prohibition on an unlisted debt. The problem she didn't mention and is lucky the opposing counsel was asleep was that her debt was known and she did not have a good-faith argument to pursue the debt collection - which, while her client wouldn't be terribly inconvenienced, could have landed her with a bar complaint for bring a claim without basis to needlessly harass or extort money not owed.
I think, though, this is a bit different - trying to charge after you damaged someone's vehicle is well-beyond a bit much. The time to bring off-setting claims is in Court; not while negotiating with an aggrieved customer.
