Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in North Carolina

You need to send a letter to both the debt collector and the medical facility which says that you do not recall the debt and you deny that the debt is yours. Request that they provide the details about when the debt was incurred, what the debt was for, and provide a copy of any bill or statement. You should also add in the letter that you do not agree to receive phone calls, you want all communication to be in writing. Send this certified mail, return receipt requested and keep the receipts. The collection agency won't be permitted to contact you further until they provide the verification of the debt. This is probably what the lawyer was referring to when he said he could not send you anything, but you should send the letter to be safe. You should also check your credit reports to see if this is reported in the collection section. You can get free credit reports from www.annualcreditreport.com. Check the reports from all 3 credit reporting agencies.

I agree with Ms. Coleman's advice.

First, you do not talk to debt collectors on the phone. The response, if you got a letter, is for you to write a letter back asking for verification of the debt.

I am troubled by what you write about the collection agency being a lawyer. There are no lawyer debt collection agencies that I am aware of. There are law firms which collect debts for companies and hospitals but no lawyer is a debt collection agency. A lawyer is considered a "debt collector" for purposes of the Fair Debt Collection Practice Act but they are not a debt collection agency.

I am also troubled by the fact that this alleged lawyer cannot send you a statement. Why not? If the lawyer is assuming you owe the debt then I don't get this unless there is some medical privacy issue under HIPAA. However, the way around this is for you to dispute the debt in writing with the attorney debt collector who forwards your dispute to the healthcare provider and the healthcare provider will send you the statement directly.