What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Nevada
Last week we had the trial, I got primary physical and joint legal. Judge ordered dad to pay for my pregnancy medical bills. The judge was nice enough to stay over (we were in his courtroom until almost 6:30pm) and so when he gave the orders he went through them quickly and literally just said "dad is to pay for pregnancy and labor medical bills". He did not specify HOW or when, etc.
Yesterday I had a meeting with my attorney about this. He said the default accepted method of payment for this scenario (because the judge did not specify otherwise) is that we send copies of all the bills now, and then I pay the bills and dad repays me within 30 days. Couple problems with this...
1.) All of these medical bills are reporting on my credit. So even if I sent him the bills and he paid them himself, OF COURSE he's not going to take the time to negotiate with the creditors before making a payment and having them send a letter agreeing to remove the collection from my account when it's paid. I've dealt with tons of collection companies, you NEED to get this letter otherwise they are well within their right to continue reporting on this account for several years to come. I don't have any assets that they can take, so I'm not worried about that. But what I am worried about is that I recently went through a credit repair program and they got like 98% of things off my report, but these medical bills literally showed up RIGHT when the repair was done. I have a car that I'm paying 20% interest rate on right now.... why? Because my credit WAS terrible. Then it got better. And now it's bad again. I worked my ass off with that credit repair company so that I could refinance my car to an affordable payment... and now I can't do that. I also can't get a loan to pay more for an attorney BECAUSE of the bad credit.
2.) Dad has quite the history of not abiding by 30 days rules and NEVER does ANYTHING on time that is supposed to be required by law. And given the large difference in income I do not have the ability to pay now and HOPE he repays me. He knows that the money for my attorney came from a loan, which was a one time use card with begging, pleading and crying with my grandparents (they took out a loan against their house, and do not have any more available credit line to them). For an example of things he has not abided by: dads attorney tried to pull a fast one on us with discovery and didn't get their documents back to us, so we were forced to file a motion, which we won and was sadly only awarded 1k in atty fees. The discovery judge said the 1k was due within 30 days. The 30 day due date was at the end of MAY, and here we are 30 days PAST the 30 day due date and still no payment. THEN they didn't respond to our SECOND discovery request, and I didn't have the funds to file a motion to enforce it. He also never turned in his financial disclosure form on time, and the judge had to ask them to do that. So I think this demonstrates dad has a very clear intention of never following deadlines.
What I'm wondering is do you think this scenario is worth going back in front of the judge to fight for? What I really need to have happen is dad pays me, and I pay the bills. I'm even willing to agree to submit proof of payment so that it can be verified. But the opposite scenario where *I* have to count on HIM to follow the orders is going to fail and will continue to ruin my credit. And as mentioned, dad knows that if he doesn't pay that I don't have the ability to pay an atty to enforce it. Even going back in front of the judge right now is not something I could do with an attorney right now. I've talked to a few paralegals that specialize in family law and I can handle paying them $200 to write a motion (or whatever else it is that I would need), and then me appearing in court by myself. But I definitely cannot spend $2k-3k to have an attorney take care of this.
I know that generally speaking a judge is going to careless about your credit, but I'm hoping/thinking that showing his history of not following orders is clearly not a good idea to put us in a scenario where I am forced to have to count on dad abiding by deadlines.
To be more specific about my exact question... why can't we just have the medical bills totaled up and then a judgment granted for that dollar amount? That's what I'm trying to understand. I have enough of his information from the discovery to do a bank levy and collect the funds after he fails to pay.
Last week we had the trial, I got primary physical and joint legal. Judge ordered dad to pay for my pregnancy medical bills. The judge was nice enough to stay over (we were in his courtroom until almost 6:30pm) and so when he gave the orders he went through them quickly and literally just said "dad is to pay for pregnancy and labor medical bills". He did not specify HOW or when, etc.
Yesterday I had a meeting with my attorney about this. He said the default accepted method of payment for this scenario (because the judge did not specify otherwise) is that we send copies of all the bills now, and then I pay the bills and dad repays me within 30 days. Couple problems with this...
1.) All of these medical bills are reporting on my credit. So even if I sent him the bills and he paid them himself, OF COURSE he's not going to take the time to negotiate with the creditors before making a payment and having them send a letter agreeing to remove the collection from my account when it's paid. I've dealt with tons of collection companies, you NEED to get this letter otherwise they are well within their right to continue reporting on this account for several years to come. I don't have any assets that they can take, so I'm not worried about that. But what I am worried about is that I recently went through a credit repair program and they got like 98% of things off my report, but these medical bills literally showed up RIGHT when the repair was done. I have a car that I'm paying 20% interest rate on right now.... why? Because my credit WAS terrible. Then it got better. And now it's bad again. I worked my ass off with that credit repair company so that I could refinance my car to an affordable payment... and now I can't do that. I also can't get a loan to pay more for an attorney BECAUSE of the bad credit.
2.) Dad has quite the history of not abiding by 30 days rules and NEVER does ANYTHING on time that is supposed to be required by law. And given the large difference in income I do not have the ability to pay now and HOPE he repays me. He knows that the money for my attorney came from a loan, which was a one time use card with begging, pleading and crying with my grandparents (they took out a loan against their house, and do not have any more available credit line to them). For an example of things he has not abided by: dads attorney tried to pull a fast one on us with discovery and didn't get their documents back to us, so we were forced to file a motion, which we won and was sadly only awarded 1k in atty fees. The discovery judge said the 1k was due within 30 days. The 30 day due date was at the end of MAY, and here we are 30 days PAST the 30 day due date and still no payment. THEN they didn't respond to our SECOND discovery request, and I didn't have the funds to file a motion to enforce it. He also never turned in his financial disclosure form on time, and the judge had to ask them to do that. So I think this demonstrates dad has a very clear intention of never following deadlines.
What I'm wondering is do you think this scenario is worth going back in front of the judge to fight for? What I really need to have happen is dad pays me, and I pay the bills. I'm even willing to agree to submit proof of payment so that it can be verified. But the opposite scenario where *I* have to count on HIM to follow the orders is going to fail and will continue to ruin my credit. And as mentioned, dad knows that if he doesn't pay that I don't have the ability to pay an atty to enforce it. Even going back in front of the judge right now is not something I could do with an attorney right now. I've talked to a few paralegals that specialize in family law and I can handle paying them $200 to write a motion (or whatever else it is that I would need), and then me appearing in court by myself. But I definitely cannot spend $2k-3k to have an attorney take care of this.
I know that generally speaking a judge is going to careless about your credit, but I'm hoping/thinking that showing his history of not following orders is clearly not a good idea to put us in a scenario where I am forced to have to count on dad abiding by deadlines.
To be more specific about my exact question... why can't we just have the medical bills totaled up and then a judgment granted for that dollar amount? That's what I'm trying to understand. I have enough of his information from the discovery to do a bank levy and collect the funds after he fails to pay.
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