Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: Judgment obtained for hospital debt

Your basic problem is that you had the idea that you had some say in what the process should be. You didn't. So it doesn't matter now, whether you felt the interest rate was unreasonable, if you didn't do what was necessary to protect your interests in court. If a judgment has been entered against you, your best option right now is to pay up using a method you can later use to prove you paid; e.g., personal checks that get returned to you. Often the collection attorney will be authorized to settle the claim for a lesser amount if paid in a lump sum without any further trouble for them. They'll probably want something other than a personal check, but you can get a cashier's check from your bank for a few bucks, and they'll probably accept that.

One proviso: the attorney may be compounding the interest. Unless the final order specifically said that the interest is compounded, they can only collect simple interest, so you may be overcharged on that.

One more thing: check the hospital bill closely and see if you were billed for anything you didn't get, or were sold anything you thought was free. There may be violations of the Virginia Consumer Protection Act that will pay you several times what they're trying to collect from you. Just don't get sick again.