Civil Judgement

i live in kansas city, missouri and am currently attending medical school in ny. over 3 years ago i voluntarily turned in my leased car two months early. due to a death in the family and expenses i was unable to pay the fees associated with the debt. i was recently contacted by a collection company the stated the were going to file a civil judgment in the state of illinois against me and bankruptcy would not discharge the debt. is this true?

[bigun]

Leases can be discharged in bankruptcy

Thank you for responding so quickly. Do you think that the will actually take the time to come after me? I tried to settle with them through a payment plan but they would not accept so I told them that I was considering bankrupcty and that did not seem to affect them. Do you think they are just trying to scare me? They have just recently found me in the last week.

[bigun]

Rule # 1 in dealing with creditors. Never threaten bk unless you intend to do so.
I have no idea if you'll get sued but, I can asure you that whoever you talked has heard hundreds if not thousands of people threatened to file bk. If they know you are in med school, I'm betting they do sue. They'll let the judgement lay around for a few years collecting interest and then they attempt to execute it.
As a young professional, you need to be more careful about your credit. You are going to be heavily dependent on insurance in your life from malpratice to disability to "keyman", etc. The trend in the insurance industry is to start using credit reports to determine if they will even write the policy and if so, how they will price it.
Were I you, I'd make a strong effort to clean this thing up along with any other derogatory entries.

thank you again for responding. i do plan on trying to clear things up. for credit reasons i currently have a joint checking account with my brother. would he be in any danger if a judgement was ever served on me?

[bigun]

If it gets that far, joint accounts can be frozen and he will need to prove how much money he put in the account. I think it would be wise for you to each have your own account.

If they freeze our joint account, and they attack any of his own accounts?

[bigun]

His individual accounts will be off limots to your creditors unless they believe he is holding your assets inthe accounts. Then, they can haul the both of you in for what is known as a debtors examination, place you both under oath and quizz you about your finances.
I get the feeling that there is more to these questions than a car lease. If you care to lay out your situation with some specificity, I'm sure someone will try and help.

Nothing more to it than the car lease. I have had some other debts that I have either paid off, or the wrote off. My brother sort of took me under his wing a couple of years ago because I was unable to get a debit card on a checking account. I guess it would be wise for him to maybe get removed from the account. He is one source of income for me, along with some other family members. I pay my bills and that is about it.