In 2002 my son was involved in a serious car accident which caused injury to himself and the passenger of car. It was a one-vehicle collision. He didn't have car insurance at the time (it had lapsed for non-payment) and he was cited, fined and charged with DUI. His friend's family was really understanding and NEVER sued us for the injuries, medical bills, etc. His friend's insurance company came after my son to collect over $500,000 that they said it was owed due to the accident, since he had no insurance.
In the meantime, my son was sent to jail for 8 months and that is when the insurance case was seen in court. My son sent them a letter from jail explaining the situation and that he could not be at the hearing. The insurance company got a judgement for $107,000 against my son and now it is in his credit report.
He has been out of jail for over 2 years, cleaned up his act, is going to school and has a fulltime job, but this judgement in his report is keeping his credit score low.
He has paid off all of his other debts, and when he called the insurance company to make some kind of payment arrangement to pay off his judgement, he was told that they wouldn't accept payment arrangements and that they wanted the amount in full.
He explained that when all of this happened, he was in jail and couldn't attend the hearing, not that he was trying to get out of not paying, but that he really couldn't attend. They didn't care, and told him that unless he was willing to pay the full amount, not to call them again.
Can they do that? Do you think that it is worth for him to retain an attorney and try to see if they can go back to court to re-visit the case?
Has anyone had a similar experience?
Any suggestions are welcomed.
Thanks.

Unfortunately they can do that, however, it would be (in my opinion) in your sons best interest to get an attorney and revisit the matter in court. 90% of Judges are going to give him the option to set up payments with the proof that he is trying to catch up on the fines. Have him write down the times and names of representatives he has talked to that said he can not make payments. If he doesn't remember then call them again. These names and times will help to prove that he in fact is trying to come up with the money and work something out. Good luck!

That's is what I told him, but we do not know what kind of attorney to look up for. Under what category we can look them up.
Thanks for the suggestion.

Have you checked out lawyers.com? Here is a link to some information I think you will find extremely helpful. It helps you to decide if an attorney is necessary and what type of attorney you will need. I hope that it helps and in any case I wish you and your son the best.

Do You Really Need a Lawyer?

Hello:

Judges don't have anything to do with how a judgment is collected. His job is only to rule on whether a debt is owed. If it is, he renders a judgment. He does NOT care about PAYMENTS. Oh, he probably does cause judges are nice guys, but there's nothing in the law that he can do.

Does the fact that your son was in jail and notified the court of that fact, render the judgment illegal?? No.

excon

I am not implying that the judgement was illegal, but that it should be taken into consideration since he was not at the hearing to present/defend his case. He is not trying to get out of paying the bill, but he would like a chance to be able to pay it off. Who has $107,000 lying around to pay off debts? I think the insurance company just doesn't want to cooperate. We are not forcing them, but would like a "second opinion" on how to pay it.

100 thousand debt for someone going to school ?

Sounds like time for a bankruptcy to clear this up.

I don't think that he can include judgements in a bankruptcy, and if he could, he is trying to fix his credit. He has paid off all of his previous debts and has opened a couple of small dept. store cards to bring the rating up and is even all paid up wit those. Also, with the new bankruptcy laws, I think that it would be difficult for him to file.

While he needs to consult an attorney, judgements are included in bankruptcy all the time,

And let me see what will clear his credit up faster, paying 400 or 500 a month he will pay it off in maybe 30 years since they will be adding interest to the debt most likely.

So they have a judgement, and will in many states get 25 percent of his pay, and they can renew the judgement after 10 years for another 10 if they are able to collect.

So a judgement on his record, which will get renewed in another 10 years, not much of a chance of clearing up this debt.

I would suggest speaking with an attorney and going back to court. If he indicates to the judge a willingness and ability to adhere to a payment plan then it'd likely be ordered. Once ordered the insurance company has to comply.