My credit report contains medical bills from my ex-husband. If I have a court order, do I have to pay them?

Question

In 2007, it was court ordered that I was not responsible for these medical bills. (The judge ordered that I was responsible for my bills and he was responsible for his - I paid mine, of course he didnt pay his...) I decided to check my credit report online because my ex husband has also added fraudulant charges to my credit and I wanted to know if there were any (which of course, there was!!! But thats a whole different dispute.) If I write the three credit agencies to dispute the medical bills and I include a copy of the court order, will they remove them bills from my report? I live in Wisconsin, so the state law is any bills obtained during the marriage is both parties responsibility, but its court ordered (and I did tell the annoying creditors that when they called and they told me to basically F off!!) Will this work? My credit score has dropped from excellent to VERY poor within a year. I'm being denied left and right jobs and loans... I need to know if its even worth trying..

Answer 1

I would contact your lawyer to see what he says.  And yes it is worth it, it is always worth saving and straigtening out your credit, because this is your life.  You don't want to settle for bad credit at someone else's expense.  So, stay with it, until it's resolved.  You got to do it.

Answer 2

Write to the Credit Reporters and protest the entry.  This can work.

Answer 3

Once again Studly is the only one that knows what he is talking about.

The only thing divorce decrees are good for is dragging your ex back into court for violating the court order.

Answer 4

No. Send a letter to the agency trying to collect  and to the 3 credit reporting agencies. Include a copy of the court order.

If they refuse to clear it up ( the 3 credit reporting agencies should be able to) and if they do not cease and desist go back to the judge he should be able to contact them and get it stopped

Answer 5

They won't remove the bills from your credit report, so you'll have problems for a few years once everything is finally paid. Definitely send a copy of the court order to every place that your ex is supposed to be paying. Having it on record there will help make it easier to deal with them if they start with harassing phone calls/letters.  Make a copy of each letter and send it to your ex certified mail, but keep the original for yourself.

If your lawyer is amenable to the idea, take your ex to court for the money to pay the bills.

Any time you want credit and you get turned down, you do have a right to appeal that decision.  Send in a copy of the court order and explain the reason each account is in bad standing. Some creditors will listen and allow you to get an account, but others will not. It' pretty much up to that company's policy on lending.

Answer 6

The problem is.....the creditor is not bound by a divorce decree.  So they can legally go after you, even though you have a court order.  

Your only option would be to go back to court and get contempt charges against the ex....or sue him for the money.  Once you get it (if you can) you pay off the debts......but first negotiate with them to remove the entry from your report.  Legally they are not required to do that.  But if they won't agree, don't pay them.  Why pay a debt if it won't help your credit?

Answer 7

Sending the court order to the credit reporting agencies should clear things up.  You may also want to bring a copy of it to future job interviews in the meantime.

Answer 8

Yes, it is worth trying. As a bill collector in Texas (yes the laws are a bit different) Once you have proof of your half of the medical bill payments, and the order from the judge stating what you are responsible for. the Credit agencies MUST take up to 30 days to investigate.

Court rulings are NOT over ruled.

Be mean, threaten them with legal info that you can get here online.. and most of all, look up fair credit act of Wi for what you can and cant do..