Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in California

Liability for dental debt for minor daughter

I was contacted by a CA based Debt Collection Agency to pay an outstanding debt for dental services provided to my daughter last year (2006) in CA when she was 17 years old. The amount due is from an installment contract and prommissory note that my daughter's mother defaulted on to a dental company that put braces on my daughter in 2006. Her mother signed the contract as responsible party and no where on the application is my name or signature indicating that I agreed to pay or be responsible for any of this dental work. Her mother lost her job and defaulted on the payments. When the collection agency went to her, she sent them after me and gave them all of my personal & contact information including SSN and employer, etc. The collection agency has given me 24 hours to pay or they are sending it to an attorney, who will sue and then have my wages garnished. The collection agency told me, that even though I didn't sign the contract, I am legally responsible in the state of CA for all medical/dental treatment and bills for a minor biological child - even if it was a for a non-essential/elective treatment that I didn't authorize or even know about until today. Am I legally responsible for this bill/contract by CA law? Help!


Asked on 4/13/07, 1:21 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Gibson John W. Gibson, Esquire

Re: Liability for dental debt for minor daughter

In Pennsylvania wages are generally exempt from attachment. The fact that it is a collection agency attempting to collect indicates to me that this is not considered to be child support (or else the Uniform Reciprocal Enforcement of Support branch of your County Court would be attempting to collect. I'm sure that the collection agency is not being straight with you that they will send it to an attorney that quickly. The reason that I'm sure is that the collection agency doesn't want an attorney to get paid, they want to get paid.

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Answered on 4/13/07, 2:57 pm


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