Received a summons from Wakefield and Associates suing me for a medical debt of 1500. How do I reply back?: Received summons papers in person after the guy rang my doorbell three times then banged on my windows till someone answered at 7 at night!!! I have previous medical debt and I am paying it off thru a nonprofit debt solution company. I assumed that this debt was already being settled, but looking through my contract this debt must have slipped by my stack. They have been calling me before but I ignored assuming it was already being handled by my debt consolidation group. How do I answer back to this debt collection lawyer? Should I get a lawyer? Was he wrong in how he contacted me?
Donald’s answer: I do not practice in your state but I will say that you cannot ignore the summons. See an attorney in your state as soon as possible and file an answer or determine some other course of action to take. If you ignore the summons it may go to default and you may be prevented from defending yourself at all. Talk to an attorney right away.
How to pay the attorney and medical bills when my settlement money is much lower than all my bills combined:
So I was in a motorcycle accident about a couple months now. The settlement demand has come in and I have agreed with my attorney that we will settle for about 15k. However, the hospital bill and the treatment received is about 27k. Am I supposed to pay for all those bills when it really wasnt even my fault to begin with??
How on earth am I supposed to pay for all those bills? The insurance that we are settling with thinks that I was 20% liable for the accident while the other is 80% liable. Am I missing somethibg here??
Donald’s answer: I agree that this amount is too low. However, it could be that these are the policy limits under the other drivers policy. If that is the case, your attorney should have advised you if that, along with all the risks and benefits, so you could make a well-informed decision about what you wanted to do. If that is the case, the only additional recovery would be against the other driver personally, and that may not be good business sense especially if he was judgment proof. Your attorney does have an obligation to look out for your interests, so he needs to negotiate any appropriate discounts with your insurance and any other lienholders.
Is it a violation of the discharge injunction for a creditor to pull credit reports for "account review" on discharged debts?:
I had a mortgage loan with BofA that was discharged. After filing BK and after receiving a discharge of the loan, BofA has continued to pull my credit report for "account review purposes" on the discharged loan account.
I would argue this is clearly an attempt to collect on the discharged debt since a credit report in no way assists with enforcing in rem rights.
I am current on the monthly payments and BofA is listing the amount due as zero on the credit report.
Any thoughts?
Donald’s answer: I respectfully agree and disagree with my colleagues. First, this is not an attempt to collect a debt, so I don't think it violates the bankruptcy law. However, I do believe you still have a claim. This is certainly at a minimum a violation of common law privacy. As for damages, which my colleagues seem to be referring to wit their "without more" language, your credit score is affected anytime somebody pulls your credit. Your interest rates may be increased, you may be denied credit. You may have credit limits reduced. There are damages. The real issue is how much you want to spend on such a case, because you would need an expert to opine about those damages. And that can get costly.