HelloIn 2006 I was sued for a medical bill, at the time it was for $1564 plus court costs. I contacted them recently to try to negotiate a s...

Question

Hello

In 2006 I was sued for a medical bill, at the time it was for $1564 plus court costs. I contacted them recently to try to negotiate a settlement and found out that the total is now $3800. They do not seem interested in negotiating. I did give a phone offer of about 63%. The woman on the phone said she would submit it for the attorney to present to the original creditor. Can I simply come into contact with their collections department and try to negotiate this with them and save some time and interest?

Answer

No, since it takes two parties to negotiate, it is never possible to force anyone to do that unless they wish to. Some collection accounts have actually been sold to the collectors (or else they have liens against anything collected), so your idea of trying to go behind the lawyer's back could also actually lead to paying twice; once to the original creditor (who may have no authority to settle but might not "look a gift horse in the mouth"), and then again when the real owner of the account refuses to credit the unauthorized payment. You need a lawyer and the one who might help you the most is probably a bankruptcy lawyer, who will have the best leverage to negotiate even if you do not want to file bankruptcy.

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