>>34422188
Seems like a scam. I have a company and in my company mail box, people constantly send me invoices asking money for BS, but as I track everything down, I know these are all scammers. They are probably trying to scare you to your wits so you get despaired and pay it anyway. But... It could also be real, as I have also received some mails that were real before (fewer than the scammers though). So you should watch out and check it if it's not a scammer first, but smells like a scam for sure.

>>34422188
Ask everyone involved for an itemized breakdown of the charges.
If this is legit, then they can't just say "You owe this much.". They need to show you why you owe that much.

>>34422188
Do you live in America?

If you want to know if your mom is actually being sued, go on google and look up your county's clerk of courts case search. You can search for your mom's exact legal name. Make sure you have first, last, and middle initial, otherwise you're going to be searching through anyone who has similar names.

There's other places you can search for in cases of any sort of lawsuits, but the clerk of courts is the most likely.

If the mail just came in through your mailbox, it's probably a scam. Lawsuits and legal action needs to be served, which at the very least requires certified mail which requires a signature.

>>34422354
Oh, actually if it just came in the mail, it might not be a scam.

It's actually more likely a collection service. The hospital couldn't get the money from the insurance, so they sold it off to a collection service.
They say they're going to sue you as a scare tactic. But they'll almost definitely not sue over $600 because it would cost more to pursue it than to just let it go.

Have your mom do a credit report and check if the debt is on there. If it's not, then you don't have anything to worry about. They're not going to sue over $600, and your mom's credit hasn't been dinged by it.
If the debt is on there, then it's up to her on if she wants to pay to get it taken off.

I forgot exactly, but some debt is cleansed from your credit report after 7 years or something. Medical debt might be different.
Go back to the hospital and check on who they use for collections for unpaid debt and try to connect the dots on her debt with them and the collections.

If you find out the debt is real, then you can negotiate a lot on how much they'll accept. You almost never need to pay anywhere near the original debt amount.

>>34422323
>>34422347
>itemized breakdown
k will do that
>>34422354
>>34422361
yes, in america
i'm just a lay person so i dont know the process entirely but i feel like she's already sued is the thing
it's just she needs to respond within a month or they *may* get a default judgment which we wouldn't want
i just dont know how much effort i need to put in on this Answer thing or if it even matters that much like is this all just one big game of chicken?
or do i just send in a very barebones basic Answer saying i dispute the claim and put the ball back in their court?

it's like shes accused of something but we are innocent until proven guilty... but unfortunately we need to invoke that innocence in a way otherwise they win so she needs to basically plead "not-guilty" and force them to spend time and effort to prove out their case? which for $600 may not even be worth it to them but i dont know, they went through the trouble to file it in court, not sure how much effort that takes... the complaint they sent us was 100% some boilerplate shit they've used thousands of times and only change the amount owed on from person to person

>>34422388
Did you check if there's a case on the clerk of courts website?

First I would check her credit report to see if the debt is even there.
If there is, then I'd check the clerk of courts website to see if there's a case against her.
Then you can see the status of the case and how close they are to actually taking action.
There's other courts you can check for any lawsuits, but the clerk of courts is almost certainly the most likely place to find it.

fwiw my brother had an issue where he was a couple days late on paying his last payment on rent when he moved out. It was like $1200 and they put it in collections. They called and threatened him a lot but didn't do anything. It ended up getting expunged after it expired.

If you're desperate you can go on r*ddit and ask on r/legaladvice, r/personalfinance and r/povertyfinance

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>>34422388
>but i also wouldn't mind this just being over and done with ASAP

You need to fucking learn dude. 600 Dollars is on the line and if you play your cards right you can 100% fuck them out of every dime of it, or at least negotiate it.

>I just don't know how much effort i need to put in on this Answer thing or if it even matters that much like is this all just one big game of chicken?

First off, avoid dealing with a collections agency over the telephone, as they can immediately start using high pressure sales tactics to bully you into paying. You seem to be smart in having contacted the hospital directly, but the reality is that if a collections agency has already contacted you the debt has been sold to them. You might be better off taking your case to Gemini AI or a Financial Consultant/attorney, that helped me a lot with navigating Healthcare insurance.

>i would just like to know how these situations have ended up over time for people who experienced them, this one is hot off the press for me and stories i see online don't necessarily have this "being sued" element, just people talking about collectors harassing them

Well, I can tell you this. If you go get a hospital bill you can negotiate it right off the bat. Hospitals kind of gamble with private medical bills and hope some rich retard just pays it to get rid of it. But they know lots of people can't afford that cost right away. I was hospitalized after workplace abuse made me severely mentally ill. My 3 day stay left me with a 5,000-dollar medical bill after insurance. I just called them and told them I was falling on hard times, but wanted to pay yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, short answer is I pay 0% interest, 60 dollars per month because I called them and told them a sob story, so I fucked the hospital because by the time they get all of their money the administrative costs associated with processing all of the payments will have made it not worth it, at least that's what I like to tell myself lol.

>>34422188
Once you put it in the hands of your insurance agent it became THEIR problem, not yours. Demand that they deal with it, and write to the guy dunning you saying "This matter is in the hands of [insurance company, with address and phone number] and all claims should be addressed to them."