I just want to be sure... I believe whychat has stated this before. Thanks!
You can be sued by anyone for anything anywhere.
If you are sued by a creditor in one State in another State, all they need to do is to get a lawyer licensed in the State they are suing in and to serve you where you live. If they sue you in the original State and serve you in your present State you can apply for a change of venue.
If a health care provider wants to sue you they can ( and will) The legal notices are filled with hospitals and other health care providers filing suits and getting judgments and liens against property.
What I SAID was that a CA can not sue you UNLESS they are a DIRECT representative of the health care provider, so a CA who obtained the account from another CA or a data miner has no standing to sue.
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OK Whychat,
This is kind of the reason I asked. In my other thread, when I said I was worried about starting the HIPPA process because the CA's have not attempted to collect the debt and I was worried the HIPPA process might "wake a sleeping giant" (one of my collections is over 4k and one is 19k (!!!)), you said this:
>>The CAs are not in a position to sue you as with a medical account they would have to have been the original first assigned CA and still be in a current business relationship with the hospital. This is not likely given the time involved. Even IF they are the original CAs and even IF the hospital wanted to sue you, they couldn't do so as you are in a different State <<
Anyway, I don't really have much they can take as I keep my bank accounts with low balances and don't own property... I guess they could do wage garnishment that would suck. Anyway, my HIPPA letters are sent and according to the certified mail tracking the CRA's will be receiving them tomorrow. Hoping for the best!
Thanks!
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If you had posted this in your original thread I would have enlarged on my comment. It is true that a hospital would not ordinarily file a lawsuit against someone in another State, however, there are exceptions. That is one of the reasons why I ask folks to keep all their posts in one thread.
For instance, if you were a well to do person with property in the original State and had moved to another State you would certainly be sued ( successfully) even years later. In one case a man racked up $50,000 in hospital bills in 1968, left the Country, came back in 1974, moved to a different State but still owned property in the original State. He was successfully sued and had to pay not only the $50,000 but interest, legal costs and collection costs, about $130,000 total PLUS the cost of HIS attorney.
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Thanks for the clarification WhyChat. I feel a bit safer now as I am doing okay financially now but certainly wouldn't be considered well off. I apologize for starting another thread all future updates on my HIPPA journey will be in my original thread.
Thanks for all of your help!