Is it legal to get a notification that you have to pay +400 $ in less than a week or you have to go to court?

No you will receive a subpoena to appear in court not a letter

Try contacting them and making an agreement to pay.

Really though, if you don't want to pay your hospital bills you shouldn't choose to be ill. And if you are unhappy with the way health care is provided, you should have voted for Obama.

Yep. When you don't pay your bills, the people you owe money to can sue you in civil court for whatever you owe them. They don't have to wait any length of time to sue you.

Is this charge for something you did have done? If this might not be your bill, you can dispute it, but if you owe them, it doesn't matter if you can't pay the legal fines or whatever. You owe money, so pay it.

Did you receive services at the hospital?

If so, you could reasonably anticipate being charged for the services just as you would reasonably expect to receive a bill if you hired a plumber to work on your house so "We didn't know we would be charged money for going to a hospital" is not much of a defense.

If the actual bill from the hospital was lost in the mail, you can try to prove that, but I wouldn't count on it.

If you owe the hospital money, pay it. Borrow from family members or friends if you have to, but there isn't a judge in the world who is going to tell you you don't have to pay money you legitimately owe.

What I would do is go now, in person, to the hospital and explain the situation. See what sort of payment plan you can work out with them, then make the payments on time.

Wishing you well.

Whether or not you MUST go to court would be a matter between you and your attorney. Your attorney could have an associate go and "file an appearance" to avoid a default, claiming failure of proper service of process, or whatever they call it locally.

In some places you can simply ignore invalid service of court process and the court case cannot proceed until there is proof that you are aware you are being sued. In other situations the case would proceed without you and a default judgment issued against you, at which point you would have to move for a stay of execution, or similar actions to assert your right to a hearing with proper notice.

As mentioned by others, this is not going to be "the first time" anyone has ever been in your situation, so your lawyer will know EXACTLY what to do, how to do it and what it will cost.

Consider also that intentionally billing you for anything you don't actually owe is illegal and your lawyer can file a counterclaim for statutory damages (e.g., triple the amount they illegally claim you owe), depending upon your situation.

Do you know how many times the hospital has heard the excuse "the letter was lost in the mail"? A lot, I'm sure. Go to the hospital today to see if you can work out some sort of payment plan but be prepared to go to court tomorrow.

Good luck.

You receive a summons when you have to go to court. It is delivered to your house by a member of the sheriff's department. Somebody is trying to put something over on you. I suggest you just ignore it.

there is no way that you had no clue

you went to hospital & received services; therefore, you had reason to believe you would have a bill

your fault that you didn't follow-up on it

call the hospital or collector listed on the letter.... try to work out payment arrangements... expect to pay at least 25% of it immediately... and give them your dates of pay... make sure every pay date has a corresponding payment & have it paid in full in at least 90 days

it is their choice to accept your offer of payment arrangements or not

and it will be much more expensive (as you noted) if you don't work something and then don't find the means to pay them

Consulting a lawyer would cost how much? If you really don't have that much to pay, go to courts and plead not guilty!

Yes if said is true. Go to court and tell this to the judge. And ask the case be rescheduled for a later date. So you have time to prepare a case. Ask for at lease 90 days.