Being sued for Medical bills
My husband and I live in Wisconsin and have been served with a summons to appear for a small claims case for medical bills that are in collections. The summons sates that these bills are for medical services provided on or around Auguast 11, 2005. We have 2 children. One who is 8 months old and a 10 year old. I work fullltime and carry the medical coverage for my family. Unfortunately, my husband has been in and out of work for the past several years which has cuased us to be past due on these medical bills. What can happen if we cannot appear for the court date? My husband has just started a job and I am not able to take off to appear for this court date. If a judgement is filed, what could the consequences be? Will they garnish wages and whose? We do not own a house and the only car we have is a 1997 Lumina. Neither one of us have stocks, bonds or IRA's. I have a 401K plan through my work. Any other advise or suggestions would be helpful.
Re: Being sued for Medical bills
It appears that you do not dispute the liability for or the amount of the debt for which you are being sued. Whether you appear or not, the creditor is entitled to judgment. If you do appear ,or if you contact the creditor prior to the appearance date, you may be able to negotiate a reduction in the amount owed or save some court costs or even enter into a stipulation for a payment plan in lieu of a judgment. So you should consider doing this even though you owe the money.
If you do not appear (even if you do and cannot reach an agreement with the creditor) a judgment will surely be entered and you will be required to file a financial disclosure statement. From what you have said the creditor may be able to garnish your wages and/or your husband's wages (if he is working) and if you are garnishable can reach 20% of your usual take home pay. You cannot be garnished if you have received need based assistance within the last 6 months or if your family income would be below the poverty line for the size of your family.
From what you said it appears that your assets would be exempt and the creditor could not reach them.
