What Can Happen at a Court Proceeding

I'm in Indiana. We have already received judgment against us for just under $2000 because of older medical bills. We are currently working on payment arrangements with newer bills and have no problems staying current with any of those. But this judgment was for older bills, and the credit agency in charge hasn't wanted to work with us from the beginning (we've dealt with them on previous medical bills, and findings against us.).

We have special needs kids, and my husband is disabled as well. We live on his disability and a small stipend because of the kids' disabilities. There's not much we can do about unexpected bills, though we try to honor all agreements made. This particular place just doesn't want to work with us on smaller payments. So we were found to owe the money and just received this other notice today that we have to appear next month to "answer as to his wages, assets, profits, and other non-exempt property subject to satisfaction of this judgement."

We're close to paying off our newest car, which is still five years old. Our MIL recently passed and left us her car, which is over 14 years old. We own our home outright. Our credit is, obviously, horrible due to multiple previous actions against us for medical bills. We can't borrow anything against our home, even for this relatively small bill, because of it (and the fact that we only have disability money coming in). And honestly, owning the home outright is one of the few things I feel relief about, considering our constant upheaval medically.

So, please, anyone ... what can we expect at this hearing? The only other time, we agreed to a garnishment to satisfy the bill, didn't fight anything at all. We never really fight the bills themselves, we accept that we owe them. But they're not bills we've signed on for purposely, you know? We can only pay so much out to medical bills consistently, as one month might be better than others with out of pocket medical expenses.

Can they take our house? Our cars? We're not living in the lap of luxury here, we don't have much of anything else worth money. What else can they do?

Thanks for any and all suggestions.

K

if they have a judgement already, be prepared for a lien on your house at the least, also look for them to clean out your checking acct, if the car has too much value they can try and take it especially if you have two cars ,even though your disability income is exempt, dont trust them to not take it, and make you prove it is exempt, which can cause great hardship even though temporary. be sure you tell the judge your income is exempt. i know these are things you dont want to hear, check with legal aid in your town or city, most larger towns have one, you might be eligible for free legal help, be sure to tell them the date you have to go to court, they will give your case priority if you are eligible.