Governor Hochshul signed a bill on Wednesday November 23, 2022, prohibiting healthcare providers from collecting wages or liening patients' homes to satisfy medical debts. An article about the bill can be found at https://www.mytwintiers.com/news-cat/state-news/hochul-signs-bill-to-protect-new-yorkers-with-medical-debt/
If a creditor wishes to collect a debt in New York, they must sue the debtor, obtain a judgment, and then enforce the judgment.
Under New York law a judgment is good for 20 years. Creditors who attempt to enforce judgments generally do three things: 1. Lien and levy on a debtors checking account or brokerage account, 2. Docketing the judgment against the debtor’s house and foreclosing on the judgment and 3. Wage garnishment, a legal procedure in which a person's earnings (10%) are required by court order to be withheld by an employer, and paid to a creditor in satisfaction of a debt.
With the new law signed by the governor, medical creditors will no longer be able to garnish wages or docket judgments against a debtor's house in order to collect on those judgments. If you have any questions about the enforcement of judgments, please contact Jim Shenwick, Esq at jshenwick@gmail.com or at 212-541-6224.
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