Judgment for Debt, Possibly for one already Paid

[GoodolWolverine]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Wisconsin

My wife was just notifed by her employer that her wages were to be garnished due to a court order on behalf of a collection agency for medical debt. The total amount due looks like the total that we paid off to another debt collector a year ago.

A little background, my employment moved us around, we were out of wisconsin for just over 10 years. So we do not remember getting a court summons for the circuit court here in Wisconsin, more than likely due to them not having our current address on file. We have been trying, one by one, to pay off our medical debt to each creditor that we know of. My wife was sick for some time, thus the large medical debt. When we moved back to Wisconsin 3 years ago, we had just finished off paying a large medical debt to collector (A) for hospital (A).

Now we have this judgement against us from debt collector (B). Which if the debt is valid and not a duplicate we will work on paying it off also, but the debt amount looks the same as the debt for Hospital (A) that debt collector (A) collected for a year ago. With the moving around I cannot at this moment find our paperwork for debt collector (A).

My questions are:
1 - Main question: How do I find out if the debt that collector (B) is collecting, is or is not the same medical debt from Hospital (A)?
2 - Do I send a validation letter to debt collector (B), even though they got a default judgement on us?
3 - Do I just call debt collector (B)?
a - If I do call what should I be asking them?
3 - Do I call/write debt collector (A) asking them for a copy of the Hospital (A) debt and proof that is was paid?

Thank you in advance.

 

[justalayman]

1 - Main question: How do I find out if the debt that collector (B) is collecting, is or is not the same medical debt from Hospital (A)?

that is something you will have to research. Your records, the records used when suing you, anything you can glean from either collection agency and possibly even the original creditor.

2 - Do I send a validation letter to debt collector (B), even though they got a default judgement on us?

you can but there is no obligation for them to do anything about it. They now have a judgment, which they are taking efforts to collect so they are not likely to care about validating the underlying debt.

3 - Do I call/write debt collector (A) asking them for a copy of the Hospital (A) debt and proof that is was paid?

you should do whatever you can to prove it was the same debt and you had already paid it.





get hold of the court the judgment was awarded and get a copy of the case file. Review that for any information that might help you. You may have a better chance at getting the judgment vacated due to improper service or such rather than arguing it was based on a debt already paid but at this point, don't overlook anything that might help.

 

[latigo]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Wisconsin . . .

I can appreciate your confusion here, but to clarify the "debt the that collector (B) is collecting" by means of the wage garnishment is a "money judgment" in which your wife is the named judgment debtor. Whether the judgment was based on a delinquent medical account payable, credit card account or whatever, its the judgment itself, into which the underlying indebtedness has merged, that you need to deal with.

And dealing with it doesn't include seeking "debt validation" under the FCDPA. Its too late for that. The judgment creditor (or to whom the judgment has been assigned) is under no legal obligation to tell you a blessed thing!

DEALING with it means getting to the courthouse to examine the case file. The judgment itself won't reveal the source of the plaintiff/creditor's claim, but the pleadings, that is the plaintiff's complaint, should contain allegations identifying the underlying indebtedness.

Also there will be a Return/Affidavit of Service showing the date and place where the wife was personally served (or was allegedly personally served) with summons and complaint. And very likely missing will be her formal response to the complaint. (Which if so, should prompt some interesting dinner time conversation.)

 

[GoodolWolverine]

justalayman,

I figured I would have to do some research, but I was looking for a direction to go in. Like you said, I didn't think a validation letter would work now. I will contact the circuit court and ask for a copy of the file, and start there. My wifes employer is giving her a copy of what they received for the garnishment.

latigo ,

Seems you and 'justalayman' are on the same page about the court house, I will start there.

Also there will be a Return/Affidavit of Service showing the date and place where the wife was personally served (or was allegedly personally served) with summons and complaint. And very likely missing will be her formal response to the complaint. (Which if so, should prompt some interesting dinner time conversation.) .

As for being personally served, we did not have anyone stop at our residence outside of Wisconsin that served us any papers, from what my wife has just told me the copy of the papers her employer faxed over show a judgement date of 2009. We moved out of Wisconsin in/around 2001, and only just got back in Wisconsin in 2011.

Looks like I got some leg work to do now, like i stated, if this is another medical debt that we forgot/didn't know about, then we will pay it off. But if it is a double collection, I will try my best to show that it was already paid.

On a side note, is it common for creditors to use more than one debt collector?

 

[latigo]

. . . . . . . . , like i stated, if this is another medical debt that we forgot/didn't know about, then we will pay it off. But if it is a double collection, I will try my best to show that it was already paid. . . .

If the judgment represents an indebtedness previously paid, somehow you will need to figure out a way to vacate it. And probably best on a showing of extrinsic fraud, that is fraud, upon the court. But the lapse of time isn't going to make it easy and I don't see it happening pro se.

Another angle: If adequate proof of prior payment is submitted to the judgment creditor and/or its assigns/collector and they decline a written request to stipulate to the judgment being vacated, you might consult with an attorney regarding filing an action for abuse of process.

But it still puzzles me as to why you people don't know which debts have been paid and which have not.

(Like in the Neil Simon fall-out-of-your-seat comedy flick, "The Cheap Detective" where Lou Peckinpaugh (Peter Falk) says to Marlene (Louise Fletcher) when she couldn't remember the ink faded part in her letter as to why she jilted Lou at the Paris RR station for 6 hours and married the WWII French freedom fighter:

Lou:"Don't you keep notes!? I must have gone through three liquor stores!"