Can you ignore credit collection letters?

You can ignore credit collections letters sent to your indigent parents.  However, you must comply with demands made in a deposition in aid of execution.

Janet: Hi, my mother ended up doing the fall hospital nursing home. As I'm packing up her apartment I am finding a lot of debt collection letters, letters from attorneys. There's nothing, I mean there's nothing in the bank there's no assets. Do I ignore these things? Do I write to them? What do I do with this?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Is your mom still alive?

Janet: She is still alive, I'm looking at assisted living facilities right now as I'm driving there.

Attorney Tom Olsen: So Janet, there would be no reason for you to take your time to respond to these people, communicate with them, because there's nothing they're going to get, as far as I'm concerned those letters can go straight to the trash.

Janet: So they're not going to go and take an eighty five year old and put her in jail or anything like that?

Attorney Tom Olsen: Well, let me restate that Janet. When you sue somebody, if you're trying to collect on a judgment you can do what's called a deposition Ducas Tecum where you can make them to come before an inquiry and take their deposition and require them to bring copies of bank statements etc. If you are served this notice of deposition and you don't show up eventually they can get the sheriff to come pick you up. I'm assuming it’s never gone that far, that these are just great regular old collection letters.

Janet: Yes, I think so I don't know. I'm just kind of finding these as I'm packing things up, all kinds of stuff.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Okay if they're record collection letters and simply ignore them toss them, if they're some kind of court proceeding that's requiring her to show up and they want to take her deposition then you want to pay attention to it.

Janet: Okay, all right thank you.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Okay Janet, thank you for calling. We appreciate it.