statute of limitations living outside of the usa

[meeze]

What is the name of your state? Louisiana

Hello,
I have an unpaid medical bill (less than $1400) from an incident that occured in the spring of 2003. There was never a payment made other than a fee to obtain medical records for the incident (january 2004). Since then the bill has been sent to collections. I pulled my credit report and the collection account shows it opened on january 2004. Is the statute of limitations (3 years my state) from the date of medical treatment or the date of the collection account opened that appears on my credit report?

I also see that they made an inquiry on my credit report in june of 2004. I no longer live in that state and actually live outside of the usa now. I do not property or a car and have a small amount of money in 2 different bankaccounts in the usa. My credit report also shows a bankruptcy in 2002.

Can they get a judgement against me without my knowledge? I do not receive mail from the usa.
Can they garnish my wages in another country? (i currently do not have a job).

If they get a judgement against me can they only attack my bank accounts once or as many times as they want during the 10 year period? I read that in louisiana, a judgement is not renewable.

I desperately do not want to close my bank accounts in the usa, but would have to should they take the money out. Closing these accounts would cause a whole new snowball of bad events. The little money I have in there is a safety net for me should i ever need to return the the united states.

These are bills that were not paid because not only did i not have insurance, but I also did not recieve proper medical care and had to seek treatment elswhere the next day. The improper medical care caused my injury to become much worse than it was originally. I could not find a lawyer to take my case as I was told that there would not be enough substantial money envolved for a lawyer to make a profit. I had only a year to file suit. I was finally told by a lawyer a week before the deadline that I had a case but it was too close to the date to pursue and almost impossible because i had since moved out of the country. This thing has made me totally sick because i had always paid my bills and had insurance & then had to declare bankruptcy in 2002 due to a divorce. I have yet to recover mentaly, finanancially and am still unemployed. My injury never healed properly and will eventually need skin graphing.

[Debt Guy]

In most states the SOL tolls (stops running) when you are outside the state. I do not know about LA and don't have time to research it. Look it up yourself. Go the the LA home page and find the link to state statues.

Every state has different rules on service of process. You must be properly served the summons under the laws of that state in order for the lawsuit to proceed and a judgment be granted. Here is a link that might answer that question: [url]http://www.megalawserve.com/states/la.php[/url]

I don't know of any way that wages can be garnished outside the US.

Clearly your bank account is vulnerable. You will have to make that decision what to do.