Now what?

[toomuchd]

My husband filed his chapter 7 last tuesday. The main reason he filed in the first place was because of a huge medical debt which the hospital was unwilling to work with us on. They had sent it to an attorney who's first contact was a summons and complaint. This collection attorney refused to take our calls, and basically was only interested in garnishing my husbands wages. The coll att had filed the suit in court on the 29th of Oct, which still gave us days to file an answer with the court on the complaint from the day his bk was filed.
On Monday, the 23 this coll att went into the district court and filed a "no answer" trying to get a default judgement on my husband. Our attorney is sure that this scumbag had gotten the bk notice already since he and we had received ours last Friday. My husband called his bk attorneyand told him what this scumbag had done, and his bk attorney placed a stern call to this scumbag warning him to cease from his actions, that he was in violation of the automatic stay. Well today the district court entered a dafault judgment against my husband. My husband just left a message with his attorney about this, angry as hell! We had asked our attorney right in the begining if he would call the district court to inform them about the bk so that they would immediately stop all proceedings, and he said that it wasn't necessary. Well now there is a judgment, which will attach to our house, and as far as the contract my husband signed with his attorney, it is extra for the attorney to fight this sort of stuff.

I am screaming mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What are we supposed to do now? I don't want this attaching to our home.
Can we sue this scumbag for this?

[rrj]

did you file with your husband ?

becouse here in TN, if i had medical bills they would of automatically went to my husband becouse he didnt file, ( I didnt have medical bills)

that was the first question my lawyer asked me, do i have medical bills ? when he realized my husband was not filing

[Mi Bankruptcy]

As I understand it...If the debt was included when you filed and it gets discharged they can't collect. You or your attorney will end up providing a copy of when you filed. If they try to garnish or collect on the bill then they are violating an automatic stay. From your time line you still have time to respond. Take a copy of your bankruptcy documents and go down to the court and submit it as a reply to cover your butt. You may end up going back to court to argue against the default judgement. Even then, they would still be violating and automatic stay and the judgement was issued after the automatic stay was in place. Please let us know what happens.. What contract did you sign that your house is in jeapordy?

[toomuchd]

no, I didn't file, but we live in Minnesota, which is not a community property state, and the suit the scumbag filed was against my husband alone. It was his medical bill, his hospitalization, and it was actually an emergency where he was taken unconscious in an ambulance to the hospital. No one even signed anything with the hospital. As soon as he regained consciousness, he was moved into a regular room and discharged the next morning. The hospital never got either of our signatures allowing his treatment.

I don't have anything they can go after, so they are not interested in suing me, even if they could. I don't work, I am not on the mortgage, and now, don't have more then a couple dollars in the bank.

as far as putting our house in jepardy, what I have read is that in Minnesota, when there is a judgment issued, it will attach to "real property" till satisfied".

[calgirl67]

What a complete piece of sh@% collection attorney.

What sort of person does that job?

[rrj]

I live in a non community property state too, they reg bills that i have they could not touch my husband, since they are only in my name

but, the lawyer said medical bills they could

my neice and her husband is in the same boat, she has perferct credit not a flaw
but, her husband has 20,000 in medical bills, so if he files they will just put it on her, so they said no need for him file just becouse of medical bills unless she files too

[thereshope]

I had a similar situation happen to me. In my situation, I had already filed for bankruptcy (almost 2 months prior), the creditor forwarded it on to a collection attorney's office who sent me a letter threatening to sue me if I didn't respond within 30 days. I got there letter out of the mail over the weekend and on Monday morning I called the office and informed that I had already filed and gave the case number (Also, I called through Google voice so I had a record of placing the call). Monday evening I was served with a summons and complaint. They actually filed the summons and complaint 2 days after drafting the letter. I had no idea that they were having me served.

I called my attorney's office to advise him of the situation, he was very interested in the timeline. It was a definite violation of the automatic stay. My attorney made the collection attorney enter a dismissal and is demanding attorney fees for his time for the violation.

I assume that the debt was included in the bk, so technically they can't pursue, but you now that the judgement has been entered, you will need to get it dismissed which sounds like your attorney will charge extra.

[toomuchd]

That debt was more then included, it was the actions of the hospital and their scumbag in refusing to negotiate in anyway on this that caused my husband to file for bk. Before this we were doing fine financially. We both had great credit, paid all our bills on time, etc. We hardly had any debt at all till this.

He was left with no choice. If they had been able to garnish then we would not have been able to pay everything else, like food, or utilities, or our home.

So now to have this still go to a judgment, after the fact. I understand that technically they can't take anything, but still, they were able to get around the law and get this judgment entered, which will cost us more money to get it removed...money we just don't have.

[Mi Bankruptcy]

Well.. You need to talk with your attorney. If he knows you have a case you can go to court and get them to pay all of your costs including court fees.

[toomuchd]

Crisis averted, I think.
So my husband got a call from his attorney. He said he received his message, and immediately called the scumbag. The scumbag amazingly took his call this time....hum
DH's attorney proceeds to read scumbag the riot act, who pleads innocence, saying that he supposedly filed the "no answer" on the 18 (day after DH filed ch 7) but that it took till the 23 (last Monday) for the court to actually post it as filed. Yeah right. And that he had just received the bk notice yesterday....sure....That of course he realizes that he can't collect, that he will of course notify the district court that the judgment is no good, that we filed, and he will make sure to have the judgment removed immediately, and make sure it doesn't show up on DH's credit report etc.
DH's attorney informed him that he will be following this closely, and that if it is not removed before the 341 that he will seek sanctions through bk court.

DH's attorney said he doesn't believe any of what scumbag said as to dates, but that since it is within the two week time period from when DH filed, that it would be hard to prove that they willfully violated the stay. But that they are NOW for sure notified, and had better do what they have to, or else!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say, if it weren't for this forum, I don't think I would have known what to do on any of this stuff......thank you all for being here, and for all the info that has been posted! You guys are wonderful!!!!!!

We still have a ways to go, but hopefully now we can at least enjoy our thanksgiving day in peace.

[ForumReader]

Glad to know that your crisis has averted, sounds like a good job your DH's attorney did with this scumbag CA. Sorry this CA put you guys through the wringer like that. I had a pretty similar situation with BoA. I first received a complaint from BoA and then I immediately filed for BK and several weeks later received summons from the local court on behalf of BoA. My attorney warned BoA of sanctions if they violated the stay. Therefore they removed the summons.

Anyway, at least, take deep breaths and enjoy your Thanksgiving with your family

[blondeinmn]

In Minnesota, you must reply to a summons in a very specific way. The summons will not be filed with the court until at least twenty days after you recieve it. You can't just call the attorney or talk to the court. The court will not even have a case number for you until the plaintiff files their case. Not following all the steps correctly will result in a default judgement. After a default judgement, a lien can be placed on real property. This lien can be vacated after bankruptcy, unless the underlying debt is for certain items such as child support, fraud, criminal restitution etc.

[Michigan1951]

Glad to know that your crisis has averted, sounds like a good job your DH's attorney did with this scumbag CA. Sorry this CA put you guys through the wringer like that. I had a pretty similar situation with BoA. I first received a complaint from BoA and then I immediately filed for BK and several weeks later received summons from the local court on behalf of BoA. My attorney warned BoA of sanctions if they violated the stay. Therefore they removed the summons.

Anyway, at least, take deep breaths and enjoy your Thanksgiving with your family

ForumReader, if I have not said CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU on your discharge of 11/23/09, let this be it then!!!!

Good for you. A new start...YES!