Okay, so I am working on getting a handle on my credit (finally putting on big boy pants!), and just received an itemized list from the local collection agency handling all of my medical debts from a surgery last year. They had ended up getting a judgment against me, and I set up a payment plan with them to pay off the judgment (and keep myself out of a garnishment situation). Well as time went by, other medical bills trickled in to the agency, some mine, some my wife’s (seriously, why can’t the hospital just put together a one-time “here’s your invoice” rather than spread everything out in 500 impossible to track chunks? But I digress…) The agency called and asked if I would be okay with just adding them to the same payment plan, so they would not need to pursue additional collection methods, yadda yadda yadda. No problem! Until now, I see that they have taken my payments each month and divided them out solely among the non-judgment debts, leaving my payments that were intended to pay off this judgment doing nothing of the sort… In essence letting them keep a hold on me, as it feels from my end. Is this legal?
And if this looks terrible, I apologize- I am not used to posting from my phone!
Was there any paperwork to your payment agreement?
It should specify which debts are being paid.
Collection agencies are not noted for making debts go away - they like the income. Unless the contract specifically stated "all payments are to retire (name of judgement), they will be free to credit it however they see fit.
One thing to keep in mind - as long as you are making payments, the Statue of Limitation clock is not running. You can bet that they will apportion the payments to ensure that each non-judgement debt is serviced, thereby keeping active and not subject to SoL.
If you wanted to pay the bills, the agency would not have them.
Are you certain that they actually have the bill? Unless you know of a bill actually going into collection - you would have been billed by the hospital and ignored the bill for X time, make sure they do, in fact, have the bill.
All of this is standard “duck the bill” dance.
This could get real long, but I am not a lawyer and I don’t know the rules where you live anyway.
Just this note: If you ignore bills long enough for a lawsuit, do not ignore the Summons. Do not try to avoid the Summons - it will NOT stop the suit - it will only guarantee that you have no idea what is going on and, when being sued, ignorance is not a good idea.
Never let a Summons go unanswered - that gets an automatic default judgement. Many of the collection suits are filed for just this reason - a large percentage will get a default judgement.
Every lawyer has a standard form for answering a Demand for Payment (which is the name of the suit against you). That form and a filing fee will stop a default judgement.
If you are clever, you can find the proper wording and form for this Answer easily enough. The Court Recorder’s office (in CA at least) is where the paperwork is filed. There are stacks of forms for the various documents on display - find out what you need and grab a few copies.
IT MUST BE on the proper form and with the proper words or the Clerk will not accept it.
Check the local Bar Assn for free or low-cost clinics which will file a response for you. A private practice (small, one person with his name painted on the door) will charge a few hundred plus filing fee.
The response may well cause the lawyer to want to talk.Best case they drop it. Worst case you delay the judgement until a hearing can be scheduled.
Legal advice threads are best in IMHO where you will get opinions as well as factual advice. Moved from General Questions.
samclem, moderator
You haven’t mentioned where you reside (US or other, and which particular state), so it’s hard to make a judgment call. From my first read through of this, I think something is going on that will not be to your benefit. The situation really depends on one’s state, but a lot of collection agencies—most collection agencies operate on the fringes of the law. If you have the funds, and for this case, I’d suggest you beg or borrow some, I’d have a lawyer specializing in debt review your case. Mcacn aical Collections are special cases and even if they are sold to a collection agency, I recall reading that you should never settle them with the collection agency, but directly with the medical institution. Also ,they are counted differently for credit scores, etc.
I don’t know much, but I think something is not quite kosher and you could be setting the stage for many years of collection agency fees (bogus), unsatisfied debts with the primary lender and just a mess in your credit report.
You also should check your municipality to see if any judgments have indeed been filed against you; you may need to pay the municipality directly. I had to. Thank you Bally’s crap gym and their lying butts…