Legal Question in Civil Litigation in California
Garnishment
I received a garnishment from my employer. I had returned a vehicle 3 years ago because we could no longer afford the payments. The garnishment would put a financial burden on my husband and I because I am the only one working. My husband receives social sercurity every month and that goes directly to the rent. Which leaves me to pay all the bills. I was unexpectly in the hospital for 17 days and now I have the bill from the hospital. The insurance I had at that time did not pay hardly anything. Now I have a bill for over 53,000 dollars. I was told that I could not file a chapter 13 because we both are not working. I am at a lost on what to do. Any suggestions
4 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Garnishment
File chapter 7 and get rid of all of your debts.
Re: Garnishment
Chapter 7 should help you out. I don't know why you would consider a Chapter 13. You would have to repay a portion of your debt. If you have hospital bills, you can include that and the vehicle judgment in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Please let me know if I may be of assistance.
Re: Garnishment
You say "The insurance I had at that time did not pay hardly anything." It may be that the insurance company is legally obligated to pay more. If so, you may not need to resort to bankruptcy (which can be very useful, but has many drawbacks that linger for many years). It's a matter of reviewing all your debts and assets and earnings, including the health insurance policy in effect at the time of your hospital stay. Further, without knowing why you were in the hospital, I would need to find out more to determine whether that hospital stay arose from or was complicated by someone else's negligence (and even whether the medical bills are proper). My recommendation: analyze all this carefully before concluding Chapter 7 is best.
Re: Garnishment
The previous posts are correct. There may be something you can do about the hospital bill, but it looks like Chapter 7 is the way for you to go.
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