Previous Employer Sent Me To Collections For $1,400 In Unearned Commissions. Do I Have To Pay?

I worked for a financial services company as my first job out of college from June 2022-March 2023 that sold financial products and life insurance. So it’s a month shy of two years ago I resigned.

I just got a letter in the mail today, 2/18/2025, saying I owe $1,400 in “unearned commissions that were advanced to you that became unearned because the policy holder, although encouraged to continue coverage, stoped making premium payments and allowed the policy to lapse, or adjusted the originally agreed upon payment schedule.”

My question is must I pay? If so, can I dispute and/or fight back without hiring an attorney (obviously would cost more just to hire one).

What are the statute of limitations regarding the time from resignation?

The company was terrible and recently had a class action lawsuit for not paying its employees enough. Is this them just trying to get back from this? And to be frank, if I did make $1,400 in commissions it was not much more than that. So I find it hard to believe I owe that much to them.

Tried to call the collections office and got sent to voicemail and am calling my previous employer tomorrow to receive my old employee agreement to read through. Any advice would be appreciated before I speak to anyone.

All I know is I’m not paying anything based off a letter in the mail without seeing something I explicitly signed.