Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Virginia

Re: Medical Bill and told to respond or Judgment

On the one hand, collection agencies often think they can unilaterally add various fees (or don't care about the truth when they badger people over the phone). Even when we represented several collection agencies at the law firm I worked for, I had to try to explain to them that they cannot just unilaterally tack on fees without some basis for doing so.

Whether or not you can be charged with a late fee will be governed by what contract you signed. TYpically, with medical professionals, when you sign in, there is a paragraph above your signature saying that you ageee to pay the bill regardless of what the insurance company does. If convenient, you might go look at a standard form of the dentist, even if they don't have YOUR specific file in the office, to see what you actually agreed to.

No fees can be added that you did not agree to in signing the document.

On the other hand, a real problem in the law of Virginia is when medical professionals do not submit bills to insurance (or do it improperly). You are still liable even if they screw it up with the insurance company, which is not fair. And you could get caught because it is too late for you to submit it to the insurance company, but I would still press the issue anyway. And, of course, insurance companies are in the business of NOT paying money, even when they should. So they will make things difficult for you and you need to keep trying.

You can wait until they sue you. HOwever, if they are offering to drop late fees that they could charge under the contract, and if you agreed to pay attorneys fees, then it might be cheaper for you to work something out with them before they go to court.

But it is not reasonable for you to have to make that decision without being able to see the documents in question.

If the amount of money is big enough, you might contact me and we might try something new to try to fix this issue: I suppose one could claim that the medical care provider has breached its fiduciary duty by failing to submit the bill to insurance. No one has ever claimed that before, to my knowledge, but it might be good to start pushing the issue and try to develop some solution. That would require filing a "counter claim" against the plaintiff/creditor for breach of fiduciary duty, in that the creditor undertook a financial relationship to submit the bill to insurance and failed to do so.

Re: Medical Bill and told to respond or Judgment

I hope it is obvious that the collection agency CANNOT put a judgment against you without giving you your day in court. They have to send it to a lawyer, who will file a lawsuit, and send you a copy, and give you notice of the court date, and then you can show up and dispute the bill in court, it will be set for trial, and then you will have a trial, and only then (if they win) can they get a court judgment.

Also, at any time during this process, you may be able to work out a deal.

And as part of the lawsuit they will have to send you a copy of the documents and the bill.

However, it is possible that they could add attorneys fees (if you agreed to pay them when you signed) that you might not have to pay if you settle before they go to court. THat depends on what you agreed to when you signed.