Default Judgement/my med. bills

My husband and I have a default judgement (from4/00) against us for medical bills for prenatal care and another operation i had. I must have signed his name as responsible party back in 1990 when filling out Dr.'s registration because we had no insurance, but we were making payments, most likely from his checking account and the bills were also coming in his name.

Since they were my bills can he dispute it on his c/r as not mine and have them verify it and to what extent do they verify them(looking back at the bills themself or by just speaking with the attorney, c/a or med. group that holds the judgement etc...) I just looked at the summons papers now and they listed him as the patient (go figure)!

I also don't want to open a can of worms. They took whatever was in our checking account 3 years ago and haven't heard anything since. any suggestion would be appreciated. We're from NY. Thanks

 

The original bills were about $12,000.00 We paid it down over the years to about $5,000. Now because of attorney fees and interest it is about $9000.00

I made the mistake of not sending a certified letter when I was disputing the amount. They can say they never received it. I do have a copy but what good is that now.

 

I know this is probably same old story, so here goes.

After I sent letter to the attorney to verify the amount I never heard from them. I even called twice and left a messsage (no call back). I figured okay they can't verify and that was it. A month or 2 later I found a summons stuck in my door. It didn't look official no file # and so on. It said I had to answer summons in a certain amount of time. We didn't. I thought we would have at least received a court date to appear eventually, but we didn't. A few months later we received restraining notice from our bank. Case closed. Default judgement because we didn't show up. Is it too late to do anything about this? Its been 3 1/2 years or so since judgment.

Thanks

 

Its a lost cause, I know. I never realized what an impact a judgment has on your credit. Its like a death sentence until its paid. Until this all happened I didn't even know what a judgment was.

What a way to get educated.

I'll just have to try and make an offer to settle.
Thanks for your input.

 

You're right about that because the 1 CRA that has the judgment listed, has the highest credit score by 60+. It don't make sense to me.

Would you happen to know if that stays on your report forever if you never pay it? Or does it come off after 7 years, regardless?

Thanks for replying.

 

To scmomof5

I live in NY state and I'm not sure what proper service is here. My husband and I were also mailed a copy of summons (not certified). When we went to court to verify the judgment, we found a statement in our file from the process server. He said that he mailed a copy to us on a certain date and I still have the envelope and it is post-marked 11 days later than what he swore to in court docs. It's 3 1/2 years later, I don't think there is anything I can do
now, its too late.

The medical group that has the judgment never sent us out to collection for this. We were paying bill since 1990/1991, but not consistantly. Bill was $13,000 and we paid down to $5000. Our last payment to them was 1/15/2000 which they didn't deposit until after court judgment on 2/25/00. Do you know when SOL would have begun? I talked to a lawyer about this last year and he said if you owe it, pay it.

I really wanted to know if my husband is held responsible for my medical bills. The bills were in his name, but I was the patient. We didn't have any insurance. His name was listed on summons as the patient. What a mess!! I want to make sure what they did was legal before I pay it. Thanks for you help.