BIL Just received collection notice this week on medical bill, advice please

They can not refuse to accept a letter a memorialization drafted by him to confirm in writing the terms to which they agreed. Now, they can refuse to honor said terms within the memorialization, however to do so would provide grounds for a false and misleading representations suit.

Remember of course, that this is just a quick draft of something similar to what I would write if I was in this situation. You and/or your BIL will want to make sure that it's in your own words, and understandable to you.

DSDA Collections,

This letter is to memorialize the conversation that I had with Juliana Hautiness at xx:xx on xx/xx/xxxx.

Juliana agreed to the following terms: $200 a month payments, with no interest on the balance of $x,xxx.xx to DSDA Medical Center.

Should the terms that Juliana agreed to make to resolve this matter, not be honored, I will be forced to file a suit in the United States District Court for the _ District of _, for making false and misleading representations in the collection of the debt, in violation of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act.

 

If it's not in writing, they can claim their word against yours.

By putting it in writing, even your own writing, then sending it to them, BEFORE ACTING UPON the agreement, they can't argue that they accepted the payment without a meeting of the minds.

This is the problem with the restrictive endorsement approaches. Just putting an endorsement on the comment line restricting the payment, doesn't establish a complete contract.

 

If the CA stopped calling him, it may be with someone else now.

The problem, if it's with the same company, he entered into an agreement, then stopped. It may be hard to get a new agreement with them.

A lot of times, when an account is transferred, there isn't all of the documentation, so a new CA may be the best option, for trying to make a new deal.

 

1) More than likely the previous account is CLOSED; if they sold it, it should also list a ZERO balance.

If the new company is reporting, it should list a balance.

2) Well, the answer could be none of the above. Unfortunately. Think of SOL like this. If you've ever seen the cartoon that shows the big dog being teased "This is out (side of the reach of his chain); this is in..." SOL in most jurisdictions works similarly.

You have a giant ferocious dog (lawsuit), when you are within the range of the dog's chain (the state's jurisdiction), you are running down the 4 or 6 year clock.

The caveat with SOL in most jurisdictions, when you move outside of the range of the dog's chain. Time stops.

So, in the case of a four year SOL, if you move out of the jurisdiction at 3 years, 360 days; they have until you move BACK into the jurisdiction and have stayed in the jurisdiction for longer than 5 days to sue.