Vacating or motion to set aside a Consent judgement made on my behalf

dlpalen

New Member
Jurisdiction
Missouri
Was taken to court by county hospital via collection agency. I paid before it went to court. Then they found an older bill from 4-5 yrs back and decided to pursue that bill too (I was truly broke then, whereas this time I had insurance and apparently I hadn't met my deductible). This time I chose to fight it cause I honestly didn't remember when I was last at the hospital. The ORIGINAL debt was about $530 but they sued for the bill, interest, filing charges, attorney fees, interest from the court date on as well. It was $880 or so at that time.

I hired an attorney.

On court date, (last August) we arrive and our case is called up first. Other side is not present. Case is dismissed but w/o prejudice. YAY!

Not so fast. The next day (I found out a week later when I was looking up the case via the internet) the other side requested a motion to set aside the dismissal.

Hearing to set aside dismissal is held in Sept. Judge allows to set it aside and new court date.

Nov. court date was continued, don't know why.

Dec. court date, their judge requested to be recused from case (probably cause it was a distance to drive to). Requested was granted.

Jan. court date, their side didn't show up, but my attorney did. But hearing was continued for whatever reason instead of dismissed.

Feb (27th) court date we make an offer of $550 (I should have just paid the flipping bill, and be done with it in retrospect). Next court date is slated for April 3rd (today). My attorney says to sit tight and not do /pay anything till I hear back from her (she'll wait to hear from them).

Heard nothing back.

This morning I neglected to have the court date on my calendar but attorney is there. I missed her calls and noticed that just minutes after she made them. I got a hold of her office a few min later (she was calling from court). Today was scheduled for an actual 'hearing'. They had my signature on the paperwork (which I had asked her to ask for last month but she said we shouldn't push it if we want them to accept our $550 offer). They had a hospital billing person there too. They were asking for the original bill, filing fees, attorney fees and interest that has now has made it all climb to over $950. My lawyer agreed to a $622.52 as a 'consent judgement' on 'my behalf'.

The ENTIRE reason I hired an attorney was to KEEP IT OFF MY CREDIT REPORT ENTIRELY and have NO JUDGEMENT. She said if I pay it, then she'll ask them to keep if off my CR. Problem is, from my research, the 'consent judgement' is done by COURT not the hospital or the collection agency. The hospital has no say they said (I called them to pay the bill after I heard about the consent judgement and asked her about this).

I do NOT want it to hit my credit report....AT ALL. If they can get a motion to set aside the dismissal, is there any reason I can't get a motion to set aside the judgement?

Thoughts anyone? HELP ME HERE please!
 
Thoughts anyone?

At this point there's little you can do to rectify the judgment, except file a personal bankruptcy.
I don't think you'd want to do that for a lousy six hundred bucks.
I agree with your earlier revelation that it would have been cheaper to pay the initial demand for tribute.

I'm guessing here, but I suspect your "attorney" walked away with about $1,500, too.
 
At this point there's little you can do to rectify the judgment, except file a personal bankruptcy.
I don't think you'd want to do that for a lousy six hundred bucks.
I agree with your earlier revelation that it would have been cheaper to pay the initial demand for tribute.

I'm guessing here, but I suspect your "attorney" walked away with about $1,500, too.
I'm not filing bankruptcy for $600 debt. Attorney was less than $400. I guess the old addage applies....you get what you pay for. That said, I do believe there is something I can do. I can request to have the judgement set aside. They got the dismissal set aside months ago, then I deserve a chance to fix this. My attorney was at fault here imo.
 
I'm not filing bankruptcy for $600 debt. Attorney was less than $400. I guess the old addage applies....you get what you pay for. That said, I do believe there is something I can do. I can request to have the judgement set aside. They got the dismissal set aside months ago, then I deserve a chance to fix this. My attorney was at fault here imo.

It does appear your attorney bears some responsibility.
I'm sure you know your options.
You could have ended this affair by paying those demanding tribute $600 initially.

Yes, filing BK over $1,000 (600+400) would be incredibly stupid.
 
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