Which county????

What is the name of your state? Oregon

When a person is making a small claims does it have to be in the county in which the person resides? Is this jurisdicual (spelling?)?

Ideally the court hearing the case will be located in the county in which the action that caused the lawsuit to be filed. Second best would be the county in which the defendant lives.

kathyriddle said:

What is the name of your state? Oregon

When a person is making a small claims does it have to be in the county in which the person resides? Is this jurisdicual (spelling?)?

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I live in Benton County and a processor server served me with papers to appear in a Polk County courthouse. I was making payments on a hospital bill. Had three more payments to make and all of a sudden I received this notice that I had not been paying and they turned it over to a collection agency. I didn't respond (stupid of me) because I thought the small claims had to be in the county in which I resided. The bill is now paid in full....the hospital accepted every payment. BUT the collection agency garnished my checking account.

Sue the hospital and collection agency for any funds above what you owed.

racer72 said:

Sue the hospital and collection agency for any funds above what you owed.

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Sorry, WRONG answer.

The CORRECT answer is... you need to check with the courthouse. Your failing to respond to the lawsuit allowed them to get a judgment against you. They (the judgment creditor) then used that judgment to garnish/levy/seize your bank account.

You will now have to dig into the problem and find out WHO the judgment creditor is. It is possible that the debt was sold to the current owner... and if that is the case, you paid the wrong person.

Needless to say, your failure to take care of this is now going to cost you a LOT of work in trying to find out which of the two parties was not supposed to get paid..... and then making a demand on them for reimbursement.