Judgement From Grant & Weber

[katiep1980]

I will try my best to answer all of the questions in this sticky at the end of this post.

I was in a car accident when I was 19 and taken to the hospital in critical condition. I never signed any papers throughout my time in the hospital. My mother led me to believe that the insurance company had paid the bills. However, she had just lost her job, and had no medical coverage.

However, At the end of February I had my credit run and a judgement appeared for $40,000 for the medical debt from that accident. It was filed in March 03, within the SOL. My mom (who i didnt live with) was served both her and my notice to appear thing. She signed for both, I never heard about them. No one showed up to court, and a default judgement was filed. The last motion on the judgement was by the hospital to give it to Grant and Weber. I got the minutes from the court, and my signature is no where in all of the contracts or paperwork. In fact, I never had seen anything regarding a bill. When the court sent notification, I did not live with my mother, and it must have gone to her home, not to my registered address.

Now this Febuary 2009 I find it on my credit report. Through an attorney, I offered to settle the 40,000 judgement for 2500 (i know but its all i got). They said no, and that it is now $60,000 due to interest. I don't want to file bk, but if I have to I will. What do I do?

1. Who is suing you? Grant and Weber

2. For how much? 40,000 (which is now $60,000 with interest)

3. Who is the original creditor? Hospital

4. How do you know you are being sued? Checked my credit report.

5. How were you served? Were you served? I was not, my mom was.

6. What was your correspondence (if any) with the people suing you before you think you were being sued? None that I know of - it was 10 years ago.

7. Where do you live? California

8. When is the last time you paid on this account? Probably never.

9. What is the status of your case (if anything has been opened)? B]Default Judgement

10. Have you disputed the debt with the credit bureaus (both the original creditor and the collection agency?) I dont think I can dispute a judgement.

11. Did you request debt validation before the suit was filed? If not, don't bother doing this now. No, probably not

12. Does your summons require a response? (Look hard!) If you don't get a questionnaire with your summons, you are still probably required to answer it in writing. If you don't respond to the lawsuit notice you will lose automatically. In 99% of the cases, they will require you to answer the summons, and each point they are claiming. We need to know what the "charges" are. Please post what they are claiming. Did you receive an interrogatory (questionnaire) regarding the lawsuit? I dont know.

13. What evidence did they send with the summons? An affadavit? A statement from the OC? Anything else they attached as exhibits? I dont know.

14. What is the SOL on the debt? To find out: 4 years, they sued me within that time.

[nascar]

You need to talk to a lawyer about this. You might have several options here, and an attorney can help you to identify them. One thing you'll want to specifically identify is who owns the judgment. If it is still in the hands of the original judgment creditor, your options will be different than if it has been sold to another party.