I'm not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice: You'd be surprised. There's often enough give and take, enough ambiguity, in contract law and/or in any given contract such that disputing a debt is not a further wrong (criminal or civil). But you might be on the hook for interest and damages resulting from the delay if you lose.
Knowingly filing a false dispute or creating a new company to transfer funds to get out of paying a bill is absolutely fraud. Where is that not necessarily true?
