Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in New Jersey

In the year 2000 I went to my local doctor for service. His office misbilled my insurance carrier, and never notified me. In 2003 I was pulled into court by a collection attorney. I made a out of court agreement with him per the court. I made payments regularly. In 2005 I was pulled into court by the same attorney. I filed a argument and was was granted a hearing. The case was dismissed with stipulation that the first agreement from 2003 be continued and the attorney to resubmit all bills again to insurance carrier.The Judge said I was not responsible since the bills were misfiled by the doctors office.According to the first agreement the bills were to be resubmitted with in six months or be dismissed. Then in 2010 I was I was pulled in to court again by the same attorney. The attorney asked the court to enforce his order from 2003. This was heard by another Judge who refused to acknowledge the 2005 dismissal. He gave the attorney sixty days to resubmit bills again. He did so in seventy days and we returned to court. I submitted paperwork from my insurance carrier to the Judge stating the bills were duplicate and amounts paid. The court refused to acknowledge such paperwork. A judgement was entered against me!!!!!! My question is what can I do about this or am I just supposed to take it and move on? I feel like my rights were violated and I was railroaded!! Frustrated


Asked on 11/05/10, 5:15 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
John Corbett Corbett Law Firm LLC

The problem is that this case was not managed correctly in your first appearance. Settlements without written settlement agreements are dangerous and your situation points out why. Had the earlier settlements been documented and made a matter of record, subsequent judges would have had no choice but to follow the earlier determination. Since that apparently did not happen (or you did not introduce the transcript of the earlier proceeding), the last judge did what he or she thought appropriate. Your may have appeal rights but you must act quickly. Whether an appeal is worthwhile depends on the amount at issue. There are lawyers and law firms that focus their practices on appeals and you should look for one of those if the amount in controversy is high. Otherwise, you will probably have to write off the loss as part of the cost of having represented yourself.` /p/ See also: http://info.corbettlaw.net/lawguru.htm

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Answered on 11/11/10, 7:13 am


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