In Chapter 13 Bankrupcty, But Dentist Denies Service

[bustercat15]

I am in a Chapter 13 bankruptcy and it is paying all my unsecured creditors. One of the unsecured creditors is my son's orthodontist which I owed $1850.00. The orthodontist office wants me to pay them $150.00 each time I take my son back for adjustments on his braces. My atty said that the orthodontist would be paid off in the Chapter 13 plan and not to pay them any money as it would be double. I advised the orthodontist office of that but they still demand I pay them or they will not see my son.

What can I do in this situation?

Please advise

[AmieRenee1980]

Question, was the $1850.00 supposed to include all of the adjustments the child would need while wearing the braces? If not then they would be able to charge you at each visit for that days charges, but if the amount was supposed to include adjustments it makes things a bit more complicated.

This is an awkward situation, and we had many clients with similar issues. On one hand, the creditor (orthodontist) cannot violate the automatic stay by trying to make you pay the debt listed in the Bankruptcy. Then on the other hand they can refuse service based on the fact that even though the debt will be paid in the chapter 13 he may not be paid in full (depending on the percentage paid to unsecured creditors), and he may not be paid for quite a while.

In a chapter 13 unsecured creditors are typically the last ones to get paid, and in theory if you have secured or priority debts being paid through the plan, they will get paid long before your unsecured creditors do.

Talk to your attorney more about this. Ask specifically what percentage you are paying back to your unsecured creditors, and also ask him to check to see if the orthodontist has even filed a claim. If they don't file a claim they won't be paid through the chapter 13 unless your attorney files the claim for them.

Not sure what your attorney will recommend for you, but when our clients had situations like this we usually found that if the creditor had not filed a claim, the client typically chose to go ahead and pay the creditor directly so they could continue seeing the doctor/dentist, etc. I am not recommending you do this, but am recommending you talk with your attorney more about it.