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Debt Collector will not take Willing Defendant to Court

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Cetaman

Junior Member
Aloha, this takes place in Hawai'i and concerns medical billing, payments and debt collection. A dental office outsources billing to a billing company. Somewhere in the process, the billing company gets the wrong address for a patient and the patient does not get billed for services. Because the patient does not pay the bills sent to the wrong address (and never sees the bills) the billing company sends the account to a debt collector. The tenacious debt collector discovers the patient's real address and hits the patient with an enormous bill (interest, etc.). Negotiations never reduce the payment to the original billed services. Patient can establish that their mailing address was well established years before the billing company received the dental office contract. The coercive result is in improper credit ratings. The billing company will not take the case to court because they know they will loose and hope the undeserved credit reports will get an unjust payment. Is there a way to get this into small claims court, or where ever it belongs, to right this wrong even though it is obvious that the shoe is on the wrong foot for small claims court? Mahalo for any help you can provide.
 


mmmagique

Member
Actually...you got the credit rating you deserve. Did you forget you had gone to the dentist? Did you ever wonder where you bill was? How old is this debt now? And don't be so sure the collection agency would lose when taking you to court (unless it's out of SOL). You probably agreed to the added fees and interest when you signed the agreement at the dentist's office.

If this truly were improper reporting, I might advise you to take the collector to court. But it isn't. Good luck to you.
 

FlyingRon

Senior Member
They would almost certainly win if you go to court. A judgement will ding you worse than a delinquent account will.
 

ajkroy

Member
It is the patient's responsibility to follow up on the bills. If he has insurance, then he should check to see if insurance paid and if there was any balance. Taking a wait-and-see approach almost never works and usually ends in collections with interest.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
It appears the statute of limitations is 6 years in Hawaii. If is has been less time than that, as long as the plaintiff can prove the debt, you will lose. So now, rather than having this on your credit report for 7 years, the judgment will be on there an addition 10 years and as Ron stated, a judgement is much worse than a delinquent debt in term of credit damage.


So, what I would suggest is you take that negotiated final debt you had before and ask them if they will do a delete for pay if you pay in full immediately. That becomes a win-win for both entities.
 

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