This medical bill for $400 was not my responsibility. I was injured in a work accident in Maryland and all bills were covered by my PA state workers comp. The total of all bills was around $200,000 yet this small bill from the day of injury was not paid, I sent many letters and copies to the attorney and the insurance company requesting this be resolved. This ended up in a judgement in MD against me, then finally a few weeks later the insurance company paid the bill and fees, now it shows up as a satisfied judgement but is still crippling my credit score. I sent in a motion to vacate but it was denied. I disputed with the 3 credit agencies and 1 removed them but the other 2 kept it as valid. Is there anything I can do at this point? I am an injured worker caught in the middle and everyone has been paid here but I am the one being affected for up to 10 years.Thanks in advance for any help..

Can anyone offer me any advice on this please?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by cbax31

This medical bill for $400 was not my responsibility. I was injured in a work accident in Maryland and all bills were covered by my PA state workers comp. The total of all bills was around $200,000 yet this small bill from the day of injury was not paid, I sent many letters and copies to the attorney and the insurance company requesting this be resolved. This ended up in a judgement in MD against me, then finally a few weeks later the insurance company paid the bill and fees, now it shows up as a satisfied judgement but is still crippling my credit score. I sent in a motion to vacate but it was denied. I disputed with the 3 credit agencies and 1 removed them but the other 2 kept it as valid. Is there anything I can do at this point? I am an injured worker caught in the middle and everyone has been paid here but I am the one being affected for up to 10 years.Thanks in advance for any help..

---

I'm not a legal professional, but am in a similar situation. Your problem (and solution) is with the original creditor not the attorneys or the insurance company. The medical provider is the one that filed suit, so they are the only one that can dismiss it.

"A Motion to Set Aside Default Judgement" would be used if you could prove you were not served or some other law was violated by the creditor in obtaining the judgement. But if you cannot prove wrong-doing by the creditor, the best avenue you could try is to get the creditor to AGREE to vacate the judgement. If the creditor is the original one (the medical office that provided service) you could take all the paperwork into them showing it was really a Workers Comp issue and not your personal issue. They would sign a legal document - a "Stipulation to Vacate Judgement" - essentially saying Plaintiff (them) and Defendant (you) agree to vacate (dismiss) this judgement because the debt has already been satisfied by the responsible party. This is similar to reaching a settlement in a lawsuit. It has to be in the legal form the court will accept (case number, etc) and be signed and entered by the judge. Once this is done, a Notice of Vacate will be sent to you from the court which you can then send to the bureaus.

In order to MAKE a judge vacate a judgement you have to show a legal cause (improper service, illegal procedure, etc) and not being the party ultimately responsible for the debt is not illegal procedure in the courts eyes. But if both parties AGREE to vacate, the court will enter it as vacated.

If the original creditor has been paid and can see it was just a red tape issue with WC, they should have no reason not to sign an agreement to vacate - especially if you go in with all the proof that you worked hard to see that they were paid and already have the agreement all filled out and ready for them to sign. It's a simple piece of paper, but it may be worth a few hundred bucks to have an attorney draw up and file. The original creditor may also be more receptive to working with an attorney in getting the unfair judgement dismissed. They see that you are serious and are usually more receptive and professional with an attorney.

Thanks for the great response.. Here is where this now stands.

I called the attorney representing the original creditor

They stated they did not contest my motion to vacate I had filed about a year ago and they do not know why this was denied by the judge. They said to call the court clerk.

I called court clerk and they said they did not see an explanation on why my motion was denied. They said since it has been over a year there is nothing I can do but write a letter to the judge and that probably won't help.

I wrote a letter to the judge yesterday


Now is there any legal action I can take? Is it truly too late to file another motion? Do I really just have to hope the judge takes action based on my eltter even though all parties agree it should be vacated?