Former Employer Claiming I Was Overpaid When I Don't Believe I Was.

Location: St. Louis, MO

I was a travel nurse at a hospital in St. Louis. My contract with them was through an agency and guaranteed me 40 hours. For the entire time I have been a travel nurse, this has meant that if I am sent home or have my shift canceled I am still paid for those hours, and I was told the same thing for this contract. The agency I worked for at the time emailed me today claiming I was overpaid because I left early or did not work certain days. I did leave early/not work those days because I was sent home by management because there was no more work to do on my unit. I had my manager sign a form saying I was sent home due to low-census, as requested by my agency at the time. I also have seperate documentation showing two of the shifts that were completely canceled by management.

The agency accepted this documentation at the time, but 4 months later, after I no longer work for them, are claiming this documentation was not sufficient and I have to pay back these hours, even though it is the exact documentation they requested at the time to be paid for the guaranteed hours. They are claiming I owe about $750, but even if I do owe this money, I'm calculating that these hours amount to about $385, so I'm not sure where they're getting their figure. They're also requesting payment via paypal which seems strange to me.

They are asking if I will pay it back or refuse. On principle, I want to refuse, but if I refuse, what is likely to happen? I understand they can try to sue me, but I'm wondering if they would bother since it's a relatively small sum of money. My concern is, if they sue me, could it end up costing me even more in money and time than they're asking for to fight a large corporation in court, even if I do win? Part of me wants to just pay to have it go away, even though I don't think it's right what they're doing.