Legal Question in Consumer Law in North Carolina

You need to check and see if this is a "confession of judgment" which will NOT be filed with the Court UNLESS you default on the pay plan, or is this a CONSENT JUDGMENT that WILL be filed with the Court no matter what. The letter the lawyer sent to you with the paperwork should state whether or not the judgment will be entered now, or will be entered only if you fail to make a payment under the pay plan.

Ideally, you only want to sign a "confession of judgment", which the lawyer will hold in his or her file and will send back to you once you finish the pay plan. You should be able to pay it off early, and it won't show up on your credit report unless you default on the pay plan.

Negotiating a settlement on an unpaid medical bill can be tough. It depends upon your financial situation and their perception of your ability to pay. Sometimes medical debt is the hardest to settle.

If the attorney insists on recording a judgment against you NOW (not holding it in the file while you make payments), and you think you can sell the car pretty quickly, there is not as much benefit to signing the paperwork. Pay what you can every 30 days until the car is sold, and then pay it off.

If you get sued, you can get a 30 day extension of time to answer the lawsuit just by filing a request with the Clerk of Court. An attorney can help you with this for a small fee, or sometimes the Clerk will actually have a form available. Do not wait until the last minute to request the extension of time if you are sued. Hopefully, the car will be sold and you can pay off the bill before your Answer is due. The risk you have with this approach is that the attorney will add court costs and possibly a 15% attorney fee to the amount you have to pay if they file a lawsuit against you. If you cannot afford to pay off the account by the time your Answer is due you should get an attorney to help you defend the case.