Judgment order

I have a frustrating problem, I will try to make this as short as possible. Back in 2000 my girlfriend (Now decesed) had our child at a hospital. She later past away 11 months later. About 5 months afterwards a sheriff came knocking at the door to serve her papers for an unpaid medical bill from the attorney general. I showed the sheriff the cirtificut of death but was given the papers anyway and asked to call them. Which I did. I told them she did have insurance and I gave them her insurance information and left it at that. About 6 months later the same sheriff came to my door except now he was serving me with the same papers they tried to serve her with. I signed for them and immediatly contacted the Attorney General and asked why they put her bill in my name?, we were not married and I have no legal obligation for her debts. They wanted additional insurance information. Which I gave them everything I had left once again. I said if you need anything else please call me immediatly. I will see what else I can do. Due to privacy laws obtaining medical information even medical insurance information is next to impossible being we were not legally married. Never hearing back from them I thought it was over. Next thing I know, in 8/2003 they had placed a judgment on my credit for her bill! I was and still am furious about this. How can they charge me for her medical expenses when we were not even married. On top of wish she did have insurance. I then called them once again, to demand this judgment be taken off of my credit file. This is not my bill it is my decesed girlfriends bill and we were never married. They wanted even more insurance information but now on our child. I told them the insurance was in her name she had the policies and I can not get access to the records due to privacy laws. But I thought and told them I would get right back to them. I contacted our childs doctor to see if they had anything on file from when she was first born or at the first appointment. They were very helpful and even faxed me over a copy of the insurance card. I immediatly called them back up and gave them the new information that I was able to obtain. I again told them I want this judgment off of my credit and if there is any problem with the insurance contact me right away. Which of corse they never did. So I started to dispute it with the credit bureau's. They said the information in the judgment is accurate. Now 2/2004 I am starting to get seriously ticked that this judgment is on my credit. It has caused me to be denied loans, credit line increases, and a whole assortment of credit challanges I never had before. So I decided to start challenging the Attorney General myself. After plenty of research on the web, I wrote my letter to them demanding a copy of the file they have on me. I just received a reply on Friday 3/4/2004. This one I really love. The bill is not for my decesed girl friend it is for the birth of the child. At no time did anyone ever disclose that to me. Not in the papers that were served to me, not in the papers that were files in the Supreme Court, Nothing No Where. It said the bill was for BG PATRICIA <LASTNAME> It was not untill I read the letter attached with my request was BG un abbrivated. BG means Baby Girl. It is an abbriviation that hospitals use. Which I confimed with the hospital the same day. But now is the only time that little tid bit of info revealed to me. But also looking at the record the hospital never attempted to collect the debt from me. All of there billing inquiries went to Patricia <LASTNAME> which I never seen. When received I wrote decesed on the envelope and sent it back. But again no where was BG ever shown or explained to me. Nor was it ever in any of the papers I was served nor any of the papers that were filed with the court. Now do not get me wrong I still do beleive she had insurance for our child. But I fully understand that I am the primary person responsible for the amount in the event insurace does not pay. I have no problem with paying the debt what I do have a problem with is the unfair method of collection. I was never billed by the hospital, I was never told this bill was for the child and not for the mother (my girlfriend.) and now that I know the truth, I am being hit with legal fees and intrest which more then doubles the original amount that was billed. I also tried hiring an attorney to help me fight this and he had told me it would cost 5-10k just to fight it and there would not be any gaurentee's. He suggested I fight this on my own by filing a motion to vacate a judgment, and a motion to show just cause. I contacted the Supreme Court and they told me I have to write up a disposistion on my own and file it. HUH? I have no idea how to do that. Well then go to your library ans ask for the NY Statute section and work from there. Good luck <Chuckling under his breath.> and hung up the phone. Well maybe if I had 20 years I could read that whole section of the library. But I don't. That is not justice in my eyes. I tired reading the Fair Debt Collection Act, but I dont know what would apply to this situiation.. Can anyone help?!?! PLEASE?!?!?!

James

 

I was served by there offices but thought it was for my decesed girl friend not for the child. Another issue I should but maybe alyready did, the hospital never billed me for the services. When I requested information from the NY attorney Generals office they sent me a copy of the original bill bearing her name as the Guarantor not mine.

 

Re: Re: Judgment order

Think it was either through a web search or a link from another board. I posted this message on 3 systems asking for help with the laws.. Unfortunly the closest thing I have gotten was a referance to validation. Which unfortunatly in this case it does not help me much with it.

 

Re: Re: Re: Judgment order

There answer so far has been I am the parent to the child therefor I am responsible for the bill. Which is fine and I agree to that. What I do not however agree with is the fact they never billed me for the services. I have since requested all documents be sent to me from the Supreme Court. But I have not received them as of yet. But what I am after is that the hospital had never billed me for these services. The only bill I ever received was when it went to the Attorney Generals office and by then they tacked on intrest, late, and legals fees nearly doubling the original amount owed. I had written a letter to the attorney general with my final offer. In the letter I stated the following....

Attorney General,

I am writing to you today to try and settle this whole matter. I still firmly believe that I was never properly billed from University Hospital at Stony Brook. As required by FDCPA § 809 (1) (2) (3) To show the Validation of debts. Additionally, FCBA §163 (a) which allowed me the opportunity to play this debt without accruing any additional debt such as legal fees or finance charges. Nor was I ever informed of the true nature of the debt that was owed. It was not until I received your letter dated March, 4, 2004. Which included the statement from the hospital which bears Patricia BXXXXXX as the Guarantor and not myself. Nor did I see anything that stated this was a bill for the care of the child and not Ms. BXXXXXX. Additionally, in your letter it was finally reveled that this was for Baby Girl Patricia BXXXXXX (KnXXXXX). I checked with the hospital and they verified the abbreviation stated in the bill sent to Ms. BXXXXXX. BXXXXXX, BG Patricia. A common medical and billing code I was never made aware of.
Therefore with this in mind my offer is this. Vacate the judgment your offices had placed on my credit files. Inform the hospital of the proper billing procedures and inform them I have never received a statement from there offices. Instruct them to bill me for the original services and for the original amount. Once I receive a statement bearing my name and original amount, payment arrangements suitable to both parties will be made promptly. I will not negotiate or entertain any offer of repayment until your office vacates the judgment filed with the Supreme Court, and has it removed from my credit files. I hope that this will be done immediately as I am already prepared to file and order to vacate the judgment on my own with the Supreme Court.
Finally, I find it very disturbing that any institution is able to use the New York State Attorney Generalâ??s Office as a collection agency. Your offices are supposed to be there to protect consumers against things of this nature. Although, I have found this matter educational when it comes to researching the law. It is not something I wish to explore again. But it does however give me a new found respect for attorneyâ??s.
I will expect your reply VIA US Mail no later then 30 days from receipt of this letter.

Regards,



James M. KnXXXXXX

I am hoping this will be a suitable negotion to settle this matter out of court. While I spent the better part of an entire weekend looking up the laws I am certainly no expert. As the Attorney General's office is full of experts. So I guess at this point it is a wait and see matter. But I would like to have additional points of law that I can file if indeed I do need to go to court to try to have the court vacate the order on my own..

James

 

Re: Re: Re: Judgment order

Thanks.. Now I just have to hope they will fold... I was reading it.... and reading it.... oh, and reading it... Very long... Almost felt like I gave birth to Johnny Cochran! It was very informative.. But after about an hour or two I started to skim through it. I was unable to find anything that would pertain to my situiation.. I guess in a way it is a strange situiation. I mean to say it is somewhat unheard of that the hospital would not bill me for services before sending the account off to collections. I did however see an instance in the PDF where the hospital was billing the parents for services to there child. But that again was disputing the validity of the bill itself. I see things on the bill that are questionable, and I suppose I could dispute. However, they are small things totaling charges of only a hundred or two. But see here is the thing that I have a conflict about when it comes to the actual bill.. On one hand the bill is a reasonable one considering they saved my daughters life.. When she was born she was not breathing or had a pulse. There AMAZING team work and efforts of there emergency team running in there taking my daughter to another section of the room tubing her, starting compressions, to get her breathing again was.... Well there is no other words but AMAZING! Even when they removed the tube and she stopped breathing again, they brought her back once again! I firmly beleive it is was not for there emergency team, I would not be able to have the pleasure of looking into the eyes of my daughter this very day! So when it comes to the services the hospital had performed I have to quote mastercard and say the services were "PRICELESS!" If the hospital bill was for 4609.01. I would still be more then willing to pay it! But I refuse to pay the attorney general an additional 2270.16. For there services! But lets look at it this way..
The price to save a life and to bring me happiness: $2338.85

The Price to ruin my credit standing, and try to destroy my financial life. $2270.16

So to save a life as apposed to trying to ruin a life. A difference of $68.69 Hmm, what do you think is a fair charge for services rendered. I'm sorry but you lawyers and collection agency's are NOT GOD! You do not have the power to save a life! But you know what???? Talking like this, I almost wish I had the money to pay an actually attorny to file a lawsuit to bring in front of a jury! I could win simply on the sympathetic vote.

*** GRR, just contacted my credit card company to find out why I did not get an increase in my line of credit. And I guess to no surprise, they said I have a recent judgment or collection on my credit file which is preventing me from getting the credit line increase. Can you guess what judgment that is?! ***

This is the only thing I hate about doing things through the mail.. It takes longer.. Why can't these lawyers admit to there mistakes without threating legal action. *Sigh!*

James