Do I Need a Lawyer to Fight Medical Bill Debt?

Edited by Hannah Locklear

Although it's better to have a competent lawyer help you fight a medical bill debt, given how complicated they can be, you don't necessarily need one. Here's everything you need to know if you've been sued for a medical bill debt.

How medical bill debt affects your credit score

Many Americans deal with medical debts every year. However, failing to make the minimum payments on time means the debt could be transferred to a medical collection agency.

Medical debts are handled differently compared to other types of debts. As a result, they may not impact heavily on your credit score but can still be recorded on your credit report for seven years if left unpaid for a long time. Such a record can make it more difficult for you to obtain credit in the future.

The good news is that medical bills have a grace period of 180 days before being reported on your credit report and will be erased from the report once settled. This policy has been implemented to allow consumers more time to settle the bill.

Protect your credit score by responding to debt collectors with SoloSuit.

What to do about a medical debt lawsuit

When you receive the court summons and complaints, the first thing you need to do is plan your response before its deadline expires. If you aren't sure how to respond to the complaint, you may seek advice from a medical bill lawyer to help you prepare your defenses and save you money in return.

Begin by gathering evidence of payments you've made and compare with the complaint to determine if the debt amount and other details are accurate. If there's an error, you can dispute the complaint by directly writing to the collection agency and the credit bureau responsible for the error. However, this notice may halt the suit only for some time until the dispute is settled.

If there's no dispute, you need to take the following steps to respond to the summons and complaints:

• prepare your Answer document;
• assert your affirmative defenses;
• file the response with the relevant court;
• serve the plaintiff with a copy of the response.

Use SoloSuit to respond to a debt collection lawsuit in 15 minutes.

How SoloSuit can help you fight medical bill debt collectors

Using SoloSuit makes this process much more straightforward. The application generates the Answer document correctly and at no cost to you. The web application also recommends having the response reviewed by an attorney at a small fee to increase the chances of winning the suit. If you choose to have the response reviewed by an attorney, SoloSuit has a team of attorneys ready to help.

Additionally, SoloSuit can help you file the response once it's complete to save you time. The application will file the response to the court handling the lawsuit and a copy delivered to the plaintiff.

SoloSuit allows you to plan your finances better and get out of debt as soon as possible. Filing an Answer correctly can help you resolve the debt amicably and take control of your finances. On the other hand, ignoring such a suit gives the collector more power to collect what you owe from the little you have, leaving you in a worse financial situation.

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to respond to a debt collection lawsuit.

How it works: SoloSuit is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your answer. Upon completion, you can either print the completed forms and mail in the hard copies to the courts or you can pay SoloSuit to file it for you and to have an attorney review the document.

>>Read the FastCompany article: Debt Lawsuits Are Complicated: This Website Makes Them Simpler To Navigate

>>Read the NPR story on SoloSuit: A Student Solution To Give Utah Debtors A Fighting Chance

How to answer a summons for debt collection in your state

Heres a list of guides for other states.

All 50 states.

Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Hawaii Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri

Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah; File a Motion to Satisfy Judgment Vermont Virginia Washington West Virginia Wisconsin Wyoming

Guides on how to beat every debt collector

Being sued by a different debt collector? Were making guides on how to beat each one.

• Absolute Resolutions Investments LLC
• Accredited Collection Services
• Alliance One
• Amcol Clmbia
• American Recovery Service
• Asset Acceptance LLC
• Asset Recovery Solutions
• Associated Credit Services
• Autovest LLC
• Cach LLC
• Cavalry SPV I LLC
• Cerastes LLC
• Colinfobur
• Covington Credit
• Crown Asset Management
• CTC Debt Collector
• Cypress Financial Recoveries
• Delanor Kemper & Associates
• Eagle Loan of Ohio
• Educap
• Estate Information Services
• FIA Card Services
• Forster & Garbus
• Freshview Solutions
• Fulton Friedman & Gullace LLP
• Harvest Credit Management
• Howard Lee Schiff
• Hudson & Keyse LLC
• Integras Capital Recovery LLC
• Javitch Block
• Jefferson Capital Systems LLC
• LVNV Funding
• Mannbracken
• Mariner Finance
• Medicredit
• Michael J Adams PC
• Michael J Scott
• Midland Funding LLC
• Mullooly, Jeffrey, Rooney & Flynn
• Mountain Land Collections
• MRS Associates
• National Collegiate Trust
• Nationstar Foreclosure
• Northstar Capital Acquisition
• NCEP LLC
• NRC Collection Agency
• OneMain Financial
• Palisades Collection LLC
• Pallida LLC
• Paragon Revenue Group
• Pinnacle Collections Agency
• PMAB LLC
• Portfolio Recovery Associates
• Provest Law
• PYOD LLC
• Reunion Student Loan Finance Corporation
• Revenue Group
• Regents and Associates
• RSIEH
• Salander Enterprises LLC
• Second Round Sub LLC
• Security Credit Services
• Sherman Financial Group
• Suttell and Hammer
• T-Mobile
• Transworld Systems
• Tulsa Teachers Credit Union
• UCB Collection
• Velo Law Office
• Velocity Investments
• Waypoint Resource Group
• Weinberg and Associates
• Wolpoff & Abramson

Win against credit card companies

Is your credit card company suing you? Learn how you can beat each one.

• Bank of America
• Capital One
• Chase
• Credit One Bank
• PayPal Synchrony Card
• SYNCB/PPEXTR
• Synchrony Bank
• Target National Bank
• Wells Fargo

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