HELP - Court Tomorrow (long)
First, sorry this is so long, but Please share your knowledge. I was up until 5am reading thru everything I could find that might be similar to my situation and I'm still unsure how to proceed. My husband and I were served a "Civil Summons" with a court date 9am tomorrow (June 6th). The first thing we did was to call the atty who is representing the medical office to try to set up a repayment plan that we could afford. Needless to say we couldn't get past the woman who answered the phone and she didn't want to offer us $$ amt. instead wanted to know where I work. On the summons they have my husbands employer listed but I was layed off in Nov., I have since found another job but I wasn't about to tell her. Finally she said the only thing they would agree to was $400 now and $250 a month, but we would still have a judgement. Bottom line is we don't even have $400 to give them. We went to see an attorney last week in hopes they had answers for us, he didn't, he looked like he was 16 and could not even answer the questions I posed to him, so now I turn to you all. We live in Tennessee.
1. We are both named in the summons to appear "to answer in a civil action brought by xyz medical", I called the court and were told we don't file anything before the court date, our "answer" is given then.
2. This is for 2 different bills (1 for him and 1 for me) that they combined into one and are sueing both of us, can they do that?
3. The amounts due are remaining after insurance paid - the insurance was thru MY employer at the time. Am I responsible for his bill even if I didn't sign anything when he received service? (I wasn't even there) the same goes for him being responsible for mine.
4. The summons isn't like the examples I have seen on the boards. It just says "...default on sworn account in the amount of $xxx.xx plus 20% attorney fee for the total of $xxx.xx. Contract calls for cost of collections, pre judgment interest xxxxxx (these xxx's are actually there) reasonble attorney fees, finance charges plus the cost of this action. Attached to the summons is an Affidavit of Sworn Account signed by the bookkeeper of the medical office.
What can I do? I am really concerned about garnishment. We have been so screwed with this economy. After my lay off, this new job pays me about $6k a year less, and my husband hasn't been able to find anything within his field and currently works bringing home only $1,000 a month yes a month! We cannot afford to have anything garnished, we called the attorney back yesterday and offered $200 now and $100 a month and they said no, the only thing they would accept would be $400 up front and again we would still have the judgement.
The attorney we went to see advised my husband to file bankruptcy (I had to file in 2008), but then he said any of his outstanding medical bills might become my responsibility - medical is most of his debts as he had to have surgery last year. As far as we can tell, there would be no point to the bankruptcy. Finally - can my husband go to the hearing on his own? I just started my new job and still under the 3 month "probation" period and I hate to take a chance and lose it. I just don't know what to do, this is making me sick with worry!
1. We are both named in the summons to appear "to answer in a civil action brought by xyz medical", I called the court and were told we don't file anything before the court date, our "answer" is given then.
2. This is for 2 different bills (1 for him and 1 for me) that they combined into one and are sueing both of us, can they do that?
3. The amounts due are remaining after insurance paid - the insurance was thru MY employer at the time. Am I responsible for his bill even if I didn't sign anything when he received service? (I wasn't even there) the same goes for him being responsible for mine.
4. The summons isn't like the examples I have seen on the boards. It just says "...default on sworn account in the amount of $xxx.xx plus 20% attorney fee for the total of $xxx.xx. Contract calls for cost of collections, pre judgment interest xxxxxx (these xxx's are actually there) reasonble attorney fees, finance charges plus the cost of this action. Attached to the summons is an Affidavit of Sworn Account signed by the bookkeeper of the medical office.
What can I do? I am really concerned about garnishment. We have been so screwed with this economy. After my lay off, this new job pays me about $6k a year less, and my husband hasn't been able to find anything within his field and currently works bringing home only $1,000 a month yes a month! We cannot afford to have anything garnished, we called the attorney back yesterday and offered $200 now and $100 a month and they said no, the only thing they would accept would be $400 up front and again we would still have the judgement.
The attorney we went to see advised my husband to file bankruptcy (I had to file in 2008), but then he said any of his outstanding medical bills might become my responsibility - medical is most of his debts as he had to have surgery last year. As far as we can tell, there would be no point to the bankruptcy. Finally - can my husband go to the hearing on his own? I just started my new job and still under the 3 month "probation" period and I hate to take a chance and lose it. I just don't know what to do, this is making me sick with worry!
9/10/07
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