Tonight when I came home I found a summons to appear in a civil case this morning at 8 AM. In other words, 12 hours AFTER the court date! It was stuffed between the pages of a store circular ad. Almost missed it when going through the mail! It is wrinkled and covered with coffee.
This is for a medical debt that followed a car accident. The medical provider told me on many occasions that they had obtained pre-approval and never sent me any bills or invoices. Exactly like the other providers from the auto accident. They all were paid, however, a few years after treatment when I happened to see this doctor in the hall of a medical building she was furious and asked why I hadn't paid. I was shocked and told her billing dept had obtained pre-approval and all other bills from accident have been paid. She said "well, I had a problem with the lady who ran my department and she was not sending in any insurance bills, so you owe in full." I told her I was out of work and could not pay. I asked her why she did not ever invoice or call me.
1. What should I do about missing the court date?
2. Can I still defend this since I had no opportunity to before the date?
3. Any other advice you could give would be appreciated.

Thanks.

Contact the court and find out the disposition of the case. If a default judgment was issued because you failed to appear, file a motion to vacate the judgment on the grounds of improper service. This should get you a new hearing.

It also depends where you live as to the kind of service that has to be made. In many places there has to be a certified-mail-return-receipt-requested service, along with regular mail, and in other places personal service has to be made along with regular mail.

No, Scott, it's probably not proper.

My point is that there apparently was no other form of service, so that in and of itself, in some states, would even negate receieving the summons by snail mail as proper service.