Once we passed the metal detectors, Dom had to go in the court room and register that he arrived. Then we had to sit in a hard chair and wait till his name was called. That was a long 2 1/2 hour wait. I had forgotten to eat anything beforehand so I was starting to get hungry near the 11AM time.
So we saw the lawyer for the plaintiff walking in the hallway and disappearing in the court room for other cases. I didn't know for sure it was him until I heard him mention the hospital while talking to the staff and then disappearing with other defendants in the court room when it was their time.
Eventually it was Dom's turn. We were ushered into the courtroom where the judge gave Dom an earful for not showing up on the previous court date. I was pissed but all we could do was sit there and take it. The judge accepted the motion to set aside the judgment (that I went to the court to hand off) and basically we went with the plaintiff into a private room to see if we could agree to an amount.
We didn't agree to the amount. The plaintiff listed all these various amounts from 2020 - 2023 that weren't listed in Dom's bill portal. They did add up to the nearly $5000 bill the hospital was claiming he owed. The bill portal had $2400+ that was listed as gone to collections. I had paid $1400 of it which left $1000. If nothing else we feel that we paid part of what they think we owe and a reevaluation is needed.
Since we didn't agree, a new court date of July 31st was given. We showed the plaintiff the bill portal that showed we only owed $1000. He said that he would share this with the hospital and mail us a copy of the bills they claim we owe. We still haven't received that yet but I am thinking we may need to log into the portal once more to see if they added anything there. They may mail it closer to our court date as well. Who knows?
I will be glad when this nightmare is over. I will have to budget whatever the final expense is. There is light at the end of the tunnel coming though. Dom heard back from the Social Security office and they mentioned he will start getting monthly payments in late August. So he'll finally be getting some income (it won't be a lot but it's something). We also learned that there isn't a separate payment for disability. It's apparently rolled into one so if disability payment is higher, that is what he will get. If social security is higher, that is what he will get. He needs to provide some additional information to get qualified for disability and then we should know what the amount is. It sucks but actually that makes sense. If Dom were still in his working years, the disability would be a separate income stream while he can't work. But since Social Security is now his income stream, disability if paid separately would be like supplemental income and the government can't have that apparently...LOL.
Stay tuned.
