US medical bill passed onto Debt collector

LibbyL92

MattMattMattUK 

can I ask what happened to your friend?? Did he end up paying it ect? 

MattMattMattUK

LibbyL92 said:

MattMattMattUK 

can I ask what happened to your friend?? Did he end up paying it ect? 

He ended up paying the original amount plus another £3k, though it did go to court and he lost by default because he did not reply or attend, hence him being an idiot, he only asked for my help after they had obtained a CCJ and commenced enforcement action. They went down the Fast Track option rather than the Small Claims Track then got an attachment to earnings after that.

The amount you owe is too small for fast track so they would have to go Small Claims Track, which has different rules about what costs they can add to the original debt (much lower amounts). I would really advise you speak to Citizen's Advice on this one, they will have a specialist who can properly advise you based on the specifics. 

LibbyL92

I will call them. Thank you. 

I may be really silly asking this question, but it’s on my mind. 

If I were to get a CCJ would I lose my job? I work in a primary school. 

If it got to that stage, I of course would offer a monthly installment. I can afford to pay £300 a month to pay the debt. Surely, a court seeing my offerings they’d appreciate that? 

Also what is an attachment to earnings? Could they automatically take my wages? Surely we’d ready a settlement before that? (This is all obviously worst case scenario) 

sorry, if I sound really silly. I’m just totally clueless and trying to make sense of this all. 

sourcrates

There is no reciprocal agreement, between the US and the UK, allowing the easy enforcement of judgments in either country.

The only way to enforce a US judgment in England & Wales is to enforce it at common law, by bringing a new action in the English courts, as I said previously, with the US judgment becoming the cause of action.

At that point, the US judgment is treated as a contract debt and new proceedings are therefore issued in an English Court for payment of that "debt".

Essentially, it is not possible to enforce a US judgment in England directly, you must first obtain an English judgment.

Then the law gets quite complex, but essentially, prior to obtaining a judgement in an English court, there are six conditions that must be satisfied before the case can be heard.

One of these conditions is that the debtor was present in court when the original judgement was handed down in the US, the others are based on jurisdiction, fraud, policy etc etc, It is for the debtor to attempt to prove that one of these conditions has not been met.

Now all this is assuming legal action has been taken and a judgement awarded against you in the US.

Non of which has happened, its just one letter you have received, from a 3rd party debt collector, in another country.

Now in the US, legal action, like healthcare, is all chargeable, and stupidly expensive, there is no way such a small debt would be escalated in such a manner as this, it would cost the Hospital 1000`s of dollars in legal fee`s to pursue this matter, it`s just not commercially viable to do so, nothing is going to happen.

However, if you want to avoid future issues with travel to the US, as they can be funny about things like this, you may want to consider a payment plan via the debt collector, but that is entirely your decision.

Exodi

LibbyL92 said:

I will call them. Thank you. 

I may be really silly asking this question, but it’s on my mind. 

If I were to get a CCJ would I lose my job? I work in a primary school. 

If it got to that stage, I of course would offer a monthly installment. I can afford to pay £300 a month to pay the debt. Surely, a court seeing my offerings they’d appreciate that? 

Also what is an attachment to earnings? Could they automatically take my wages? Surely we’d ready a settlement before that? (This is all obviously worst case scenario) 

sorry, if I sound really silly. I’m just totally clueless and trying to make sense of this all. 

No - CCJ's are only visible by people who perform credit searches on you, such as lenders (e.g. mortgage, credit card, car finance, etc) or as part of vetting (e.g. for those seeking to work in the financial sector or some governmental roles).

Most employers do not perform financial checks on their employees, and even less likely to do one mid-employment.

The biggest issue is it can make you less desirable to mainstream lenders, sometimes pushing you to sub-prime lenders for loans and mortgages.

An 'Attachement of Earnings' is an order made where repayments are automatically deducted from your wages (the employer is legally obliged to comply. Debtors can prevent this by negotiating reasonable payment offers/plans.

In the scenario MattMattMattUK describes, as the Debtor has already ignored all communication and court action, an AoE order was sought because it was likely suspected the Debtor would ignore repayment demands.

An AoE takes it out of the hands of the debtor (unless they decide to quit their job).

But not worth getting scared about, because as Matt says "The amount you owe is too small for fast track so they would have to go Small Claims Track"

Exodi

sourcrates said:

However, if you want to avoid future issues with travel to the US, as they can be funny about things like this, you may want to consider a payment plan via the debt collector, but that is entirely your decision.

The UK would outright refuse entry due to unpaid medical debt. Some countries go even further than this (*cough* the UAE *cough*).

The US in contrast is relatively lax, I'm not sure border control would even be aware.

LibbyL92

Guys, I cannot thank you enough for taking time to reassure and reply to me. 

So moving forward, I may reach out to the hospital and offer payment for the discounted rate. I’m really reluctant to contact the debt collectors. 

If this fails, I will ignore the letters. 

I am going to the US in December. (I recently got a new ESTA through and all was approved) 
I’m unsure about it being flagged by border force as this is a civil matter… 

if stuff hits the fan.. and it’s very unlikely as you guys said but just so I’m clear. I offer to pay what I can afford a month, and have this written off in 3 months. 

I’m under the impression mostly these debts carried on getting sold off. 

Will this also be written off in 6 years? 

molerat

Will this also be written off in 6 years?

7 years in the US to fall off any credit report but they do not go away (unlike Scotland) but further enforceability depends on state law..

sourcrates

Foreign debts are almost never sold to UK companies, the limitation period would be in accordance with the law in the country the debt originated, in the US, that is 7 years.

The limitation period in the UK is 6 years.

LibbyL92

Thanks! 

Guys, I may post back when I/if I receive more letters. For further advice if needed. 

I’m definitely more relaxed than I was. But I will be ignoring moving forward. 

I may look into entry into the US next. But again I can’t see how they would deny me entry for a civil matter.