My son’s mother filed a request for reimbursement of medical expenses back in Oct. 2010. I’ve learned that none of the bills for which she seeks reimbursement have been paid and ALL have gone to collection agencies. I also have documents that prove I was not notified of the incidents during or after they occurred. I’m told that there is a family penal code requiring her to notify me of such incidents within a given time frame and she has failed to do so. Her attorney claims that she can’t pay the bills and pressured my attorney and I into agreeing to pay them since the judge would, according to him, order it anyway. Is this true? We have a trial date set and I was wondering if there is any law, family or civil, that protects me, and my credit, as a private citizen. If I am indeed ordered to pay half of the unpaid bills, is there any civil/consumer law that provides me legal recourse?

I own a home that I bought prior to being married…always kept all the paper work in my name only and made all payments by myself if I wanted to add some one other than my wife onto the mortage and deed can I do this ,I would like to add my brother on…how can I do this ?????????
Married for 14 years…and not once has she even offered to help with the bills
Thanks
Brian

Sorry this is going to be a long question. I didn’t know how to ask it without putting in all the details… Thanks for reading!

First, a little bit of background information: I have been living in an apartment in Colorado for almost two years with two roommates. This past September, my roommates and I got in a fight, and they haven’t talked to me since. I was recently offered a job in Switzerland, and will be moving in a little under two weeks. Our lease is up at the end of May, and I am planning to vacate at that time, and the two roommates are going to stay. I am going to continue paying rent until the end of our lease.

However; I had not planned on paying for internet or utilities after I move out. When we move in, we verbally agreed that if someone was not in the apartment for an extended period of time (more than a few weeks), they would not have to pay utilities during those times. We actually acted upon this verbal agreement for one of the other roommates, and she did not pay her whole third of the utilities for about a month while she was gone. Also, the utilities and internet bills are entirely in my roommate’s names (one in each of their names).

In a recent meeting with my roommates and our landlord, I was told that the lease states I am required to pay my share of utilities. The roommates told me that if I didn’t, they would simply not pay my portion, and then I would have to pay the late fee as well. One of the roommates has a family lawyer (her dad’s lawyer) who has been advising her. She claims her lawyer said I will have to pay the utilities, and she has threatened to take me to court if I don’t.

Overall, the cost of the utilities and internet over those two months should be around $100-150. It’s not a huge sum of money, but I would really like to avoid paying it if I can (it seems like a lot of money to me right now, and I don’t feel like I have a moral obligation to pay).

The terms in the lease are as follows:

“You will pay for all utilities, related deposits, connection and disconnect fees, and charges on utility bills connected in your name or during your tenancy. Water, electricity, and gas must be connected on or before the beginning date of this lease contract, as stated in Paragraph 3 Contract Term. Any utility costs incurred by us will remain your responsibility, must be reimbursed to us within 10 days of our notice to you, and will incur an administrative fee of $25 per month until paid.

‘You must not allow utilities to be disconnected – including disconnection for not paying your bills – until the Lease Contract term or renewal period ends. Without proper notice to vacate, and without proper transfer of utilities to us, you will remain responsible for any damage to the units as a result of abandoning the unit or discontinuance of utility service to the unit. You will reimburse us for any amounts that we pay to the utility company on your behalf, plus a $25.00 administration fee, within 10 days of getting notice from us that we have paid your utility bills.”

This is all that the lease says about utilities. What I am wondering is if this could in fact be used in court to force me to pay the utilities, or if because the bills are in my roommates name, if I can just refuse to pay. Also, if I do refuse to pay, and they did take me to court, how would that work if I am going to be in Switzerland? Can they penalize me for not flying back? Would there be some sort of default ruling?

Would a judge even see this case, since it is such a low amount of money? If I lost the case, would I end up paying more in the long run than if I just paid it now? Do you think I would lose the case? Or is there really nothing my roommates can legally do?

Any thoughts, advice, resources, etc. would be greatly appreciated! I have no idea what to do legally, and I’m at a bit of a disadvantage because my roommates have their lawyer giving them free advice (He’s a family friend, as well as their family lawyer).

Thanks!

5 yrs ago i was under the care of a chiropractor. he recommended a procedure under anesthsia . i told him i didn’t want to do anything not covered by my insurance. i had the procedure, and paid the bills i was sent. yesterday i recieved a bill from a collections agency for $1,966.12. on the bill there are several entries as non covered write off. i never heard from them or recieved any bills. this was 5yrs ago am i legally responsible for this? will this be on my credit report?

my husband died just over a year ago. There was no estate. He had a lot of medical bills ,as I received the bills ,I would contact the people tell them he died and there was no estate. So I thought every would be ok. Iam trying to sell our home and propertyand just found out some how .86 acres was not listed in the deed with rights to suvoriship to me .So now I have to probate this property. Can those same bills now come back to be paid ? Are would they be closed and cant be reopened.

I was recently compensated by the state of Illinois for a crime victim claim. The state has paid my bills resulting from the incident. There are two accounts that remain in collections, even once the original debtors were paid. I have two questions. 1. Is it legal for these accounts to be sent to collections once a claim is filed? 2. Do I have a right to legal actions if these accounts are not removed?