The Wall Street Journal had a long article titled "Hospitals Try Extreme Measures To Collect Their Overdue Debts" on October 30. It describes an interesting legal practice akin to debtor's prison and to criminal contempt:

Judges grant a creditor's request for a body attachment when someone misses one or more hearings or otherwise flouts a court's authority -- technically, it's not punishment for the debt itself.

...

The use of body attachments -- known in some states as civil arrest warrants, bench warrants or writs of capias -- varies widely from state to state, and even from courtroom to courtroom, depending on such factors as the aggressiveness of local collections agencies and judicial sympathies. It isn't possible to determine how many hospitals nationwide use the procedure. In body-attachment proceedings, a collections lawyer acting on the creditor's behalf generally can request the arrest, which is then ordered by a judge.

Mr. Bushman, the truck driver who was arrested in the middle of the night, has had a long struggle to pay his hospital bills. In a series of trips to the Carle emergency room over a period of five years, Mr. Bushman, who is diabetic, sought care for his wife and their three young sons. At times, the Bushmans were insured. Other times, they lacked coverage, or their insurance didn't cover the entire bill. They paid some of the Carle bills, but by late 1998, still owed $579 and had received several collections notices.

In February 1999, Carle filed a lawsuit in Champaign County Circuit Court seeking payment. Mr. Bushman appeared at a court hearing on the debt a month later. He says he couldn't afford a lawyer -- and in Illinois civil arrest cases, unlike criminal cases, the court isn't required to appoint one. At the hearing Mr. Bushman agreed to pay the full amount within a month, even though he says he wasn't sure he would have the money. After he failed to make the payment, the court ordered him to appear at another hearing at the end of April.

This time, he didn't show up. He says he was worried about losing a day's pay. He knew he was risking arrest, but he says, "I assumed I could probably take care of it later" and, besides, he says, he couldn't pay the debt. Mr. Bushman, who is now 40 and works as a mechanic, says he was "expecting some money from a tax return" but didn't get it.

The court, at the request of a lawyer for Carle's collections agency, ordered a body attachment. However, Mr. Bushman wasn't arrested right away. In Champaign County, body attachments are usually enforced only when an officer confronts someone for another incident or alleged offense.

About a year later, at 1:10 in the morning of June 13, 2000, Urbana police picked up Mr. Bushman's 16-year-old son for drinking and violating curfew laws, according to police records. When the officer brought the teenager home, his last name triggered an alert about the outstanding civil-arrest warrant against his father. Mr. Bushman's wife, Diane, remembers thinking, "You bring home my son and take away my husband?"

Mr. Bushman was booked and fingerprinted at the Champaign jail. He posed for a mug shot, turned over his shoelaces and was escorted to a cell. A judge imposed bail of $2,500 -- with $250 payable up front. Mr. Bushman waited in a cell while his wife tried to come up with the money. He says he fell asleep on the concrete bench, using a roll of toilet paper as a pillow. Ms. Bushman borrowed the money from her mother-in-law, and Mr. Bushman was freed a short time later. Within three months, he paid Carle the balance of his debt, and the case was dismissed.

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