Help, How to proceed?

You can, but they don't have to respond. Also, I suspect that a copy of your most recent payment to the CA would constitute "validation" (the rules of validation are very vague and very much in favor of the CA/OC).

 

Unbelievable! Absolutely unbelievable! No, worse than that, it is preposterous. Been paying on bills s/he don't even legally owe anymore.

I know what kind of a letter I would send them and it sure wouldn't be a validation letter. I'd send them a GFY letter real quick.

Alright, I know everybody will want to know what the heck a GFY letter is so here is the nice version.

Dear Dumbo Collection Agency

This is to inform you that while my religion will not allow me to say what I think of you and your illegal attempts to collect from me I sincerely hope that when you go home tonight your mother runs out from under the front porch and bites you a hard one. In short, GFY.

For those who might be a little squeamish about going that far, a nice simple cease & desist letter would also do about the same thing. If they failed to have their written response letter in my hands within 5 days I'd spend the next day preparing my federal lawsuit against them.

Then if they ever got stupid enough to actually take me to local court I'd file another one on them for misrepresenting the legal status of the debt.

 

I would clarify which bills the payments have been going towards--the most recent ones.

This could be a case of the one with the most paperwork wins, in which case, the OP should collect or construct a record of payments and match that to a record of bills.

Then, as C1S says, make it clear that you are paying on those that are valid and not (anymore) paying on those that are not.

While it might seem right or logical to say you were paying on the oldest ones first, YOU DO NOT WANT TO SAY THAT!!!!! Doing so will bring them into the present so they can still be collected.

 

Bravo! Good for you! I hope the AG bites them a hard one. Chances are that won't happen. They might have to sign some stipulated agreement or get some kind of cease and desist letter but what is that to you? You get nothing at all.

I do hope you will come back and tell us how it all worked out. Oh yea, one other little thing. Once it is all over ask the AG how much it cost the taxpayers in your state to get the AG to get the job done.

 

Be careful

Don't be too cavalier re whether these debts are enforceable or not. Depending on your state, the statutes of limitation on a debt may not start running until you stop making payments. In other words, every time you make a payment, the statute starts over.

-Attorney

 

Just a piece of advice: If the hospital sold the debt to the CA, the hospital won't ever see a dime of your payments. The CA would pay the hospital a pre-negotiated percentage of your balance and then try to collect on their own.

So it could be entirely possible that none of your money will ever go to the hospital, and that would be entirely legitimate. Your AG will give you far better advice than I can, but remember that they're only people too, and mistakes happen.

Be careful is my advice.

 

Excellent advice. buckeyefan, can you get detailed payment history? Specifically, what amounts have been applied to what accounts / balances? This will go a long way to help you determine what is and is not out of SOL. And be careful how you request this information; if you go to the CA and explain what you're doing, they may suddenly decide to apply your last payment across all debts evenly, thus re-starting the SOL.