Jailed for $280: The return of debtors' prisons

[davsand]

40. We have a WINNER!!! You got it exactly right!

The arrest is based on a "Contempt of Court" citation for either missing a court date OR for failure to make court ordered payments. This is not about skipping a payment on your hospital bill or your check to the doctor bounced. This happens when a debtor has been found liable for payment on a debt, the court sets up a payment arrangement, and that arrangement is ignored or the agreement is violated in some way.

Now, before anybody gets all het up, understand, I am NOT saying it is right, I'm just saying that "body attachments" are used more commonly than you might think.

What a lot of people don't realize about medical collections is that a lot of hospitals will turn you over to collections within a very short time of you getting out of the hospital if you don't have insurance. If you have insurance, then you got some time because they are haggling with your insurance company at that point. Once your insurance company pays as much as they are willing, THEN you get sent to collections. The collection agency immediately calls you up and starts to lean on you because they don't make any money until they collect it. They can make money off suing you because a lot of times they can get a percentage of the court costs. They have zero incentive to work with you on that debt, and in fact, have a real interest in getting you into the court system as fast as possible.

They sue you and you go to court. If you are like a lot of folks you are gonna walk in there alone--pro se. You are gonna be standing in front of a judge by yourself, against a lawyer that has most likely been in front of that same judge all day doing this same type of hearing over and over. A lot of folks will end up pressured into payment plans in that situation, and (THIS is the important part!) BECAUSE it is a part of the court order, if you miss a payment you can get hauled into jail. Remember how the collection agency can get a percentage of court costs? Well, miss payment and it becomes another opportunity for them to have another payday...

Illinois collection laws are not pretty at all, but from what I understand this is a fairly common practice across the US.



Laura