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i am a 20yr old pregnant woman, i recieved medical treatment from a hospital at the beginning of my pregnancy and was uninsured. i filed for financial help thru the hospital and it brought my bill of 5000 some dollars to 375 due. this was roughly 5 months ago, that i recieved the care. they sent the first bill to me a month later. i am unemployed and havent paid the bill yet. the hospital sent the bill to a collection agency who filed a summons in civil action , and o contact the attorney. i have contacted with an offer of paying 150 to make it go away that my boyfriend would pay him. he never returned my call then i called again and they claimed they would get back to me still no answer. i am coming up on the 28 day mark before a judgment is filed what can they do if the judgment is filed and i have no assets or money for them to take and i am now 33 weeks pregnant.
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I am assuming that they filed the action in small claims court since it is only for $375. I would recommend that you do one of two options.
1) Represent yourself pro se and file an Answer with the court. As you alluded to, you must file an Answer within 28 days of service. If there is any reason why you may not be liable for the debt, you could deny the claims in the Complaint. At which time, if it is small claims, they will set the matter for a trial. If you still cannot get in contact with the attorney you will be able to talk to him then and present your settlement offer. If they reject it they will then have to prove their case and if the judge finds in their favor they will have to try to collect.
2) The other option would be to hire an attorney for the sole purpose of trying to settle the claim. Some attorneys may take this on for a very reasonable flat fee due to the limited scope of work.
If you do nothing and they obtain a default judgment they will of course try to collect. While you state that you have no assets or money at the present time, I am sure you do not always want that to be the case. Judgments survive quite a long time. So years down the road you may one day notice 1,000's missing from your bank account (interest, costs and attorney's fees add up significantly over time) to satisfy the judgment. Or one day you hear a knock on your door and it is the sheriff coming to serve a Writ of Execution (where they take personal belongings, i.e. tvs, computers, etc., and sell them at auction to satisfy the debt). Basically what I am saying is, it is best try to get this resolved instead of one day possibly seeing all your hard work go to waste.
Answered on Sep 18th, 2013 at 3:28 PM
The answer provided is not legal advice and it is recommended that you seek advice of an attorney.