Recently, our firm was hired on a pair of medical debt cases pursued by the debt collection law firm of Smith Carroad Levy & Wan P.C. The first client was sued for a medical debt that he allegedly incurred at a rehabilitation clinic, Allied Medical and Diagnostic Services. Although our client was insured and supplied his coverage to them they pursued the debt against him personally, sent him into collection hurting his credit report and finally filed suit against him. We immediately submitted our answer with affirmative defenses and requested all discovery material asking what this bill stemmed from since our client was insured at the time of the treatment. Once we provided proof that the client was insured at the time, Smith Carroad advised us that the lawsuit against our client was being dismissed with prejudice.
The second case stemmed from alleged medical services received from Methodist Hospital. Smith Carroad, the same firm was able to obtain a default judgment against our client in this matter. However, our client never actually received any sort of medical services from the hospital and they did not have any paperwork leading to her receiving those services. What made this case even more egregious was that Smith Carroad stated that our client was personally served. This was impossible on the date stated since she had proof not only that she was on a flight at the time service was listed but that she did not even live in the apartment that was allegedly served with process. When we looked into the actual process server, we found a long record of violations and sanctions against him. We filed an Order to Show Cause to vacate the default judgment against her and also asked the court to dismiss the action against her due to a lack of standing since she had never received any sort of medical treatment from Methodist Hospital. The Brooklyn Civil Court Judge ruled in our favor stating that our client could not have possibly been served and that this was another classic case of sewer service.