Medical Judgement

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?NV
I just recieved a judgement from a hospital collection agency. It was delivered by a sheriff. I called the collection agency to see what to do. She said I had to make payments no less than 150.00 a month. I said ok and she sent me papers to sign. Well after looking through everything I noticed that the principal balance keeps changing. I understand that interest keeps changing but not pricipal. The original bill was from Saint Mary's hospital. I didn't have insurance at the time. This was a year ago in Aug.2003. The fees that the hospital charged were around 900.00 for principal then when I recieved the notice from the judgement the principal was 1279.00. Now when I recieved this copy to sign saying I will make payments It says pricipal of 1448.94 with court fees and other fees a total of 1847.94. This seems very excessive and I'm wondering if I should just go to court and try and fight this or what I can do to get out of some of these fees and charges? I had just moved back to NV that month from CA and my husbands insurance didn't carry over we currently have twin daughters and two sons and a ton of medical bills and just can't afford this judgement payment of 150.00 a month. I am a student and my husband if the only one working. Please help with any advice you can give**************.Thankyou

[Ladynred]

Wait - were you served with a notice of a default judgment or were you served a Summons for a lawsuit ??

Have you tried calling the hospital to find out EXACTLY what the balance of the bill(s) are ?? Interest and fees will stack up, but the base amount should not be shifting around. At the very least, I'd challenge them on that alone.

I was served with a summons telling me to answer or make a plea. It's says the notice doesn't set a court date that the court date will be mailed separately. And like I said I called them because I got worried about what they can do I don't want them garnishing my husbands wages or coming after anything we have. That's when the lady gave me the final balance owed with fees etc and said they won't accept less than 150.00 a month till paid. I contacted the hospital a while ago and they gave me the figure of 900.00 now like I said it's 1800.00. I'm just wondering if I should go to court and fight this or just sign the paper they sent back after I called saying that judgement be entered in favor of plaintiff and pay the 150.00 a month. I just think that being a catholic hospital and me not having insurance at the time that it's awful they are trying to sue me. Is there any way I can talk to the hospital or do I have to deal with the collection agency now since it's gone this far. What exactally can they do and do I have to sign this paper saying I will make these payments they sent a letter with the paper to be signed saying if I fail to comply a Default Judgement proceeding with commence......Please give any more advice that you can .....thanks again

[Ladynred]

You can try negotiating with the hospital directly, but at this point they'll likely just send you back to the lawyer. Definitely go to court, I wouldn't let them win that easily and you may be able to negotiate a settlement for even less.

Is the lawsuit in both names or only yours ?

The lawsuit is in both of our names ( me and my husbands) ......so since I already called them and got the papers drawn up for making payments that I'm supposed to sign and return in 10 days which is only 2 days left how do I now go about getting a date to go to court? Is this ok since I already asked about making payments? Can I now go back and change my decision since I haven't signed the papers? I'm just trying to figure out the best step to take. If I can go to court and settle for less that would be great. Thank you again for all your advice

[Ladynred]

Have you filed an Answer with the court per the instructions or have you been just dealing with this lawyer ?? Since the amount of the debt seems to be a moving target, I'd challenge that - get your Answer to the court before the deadline and you should get a court date. You would deny the alleged amount they are claiming you owe and make the prove just what that is.

If you do not sign that agreement and get it to the lawyer, it'll go to court and he'll likely try for a summary judgment. Without proof in the form of an accounting of the amount, there's no way I'd just let them have what they're asking for.