It does happen out of the blue like that sometimes, though. A little over a decade ago, my biological father who lived in another state had died suddenly. Becau

It does happen out of the blue like that sometimes, though. A little over a decade ago, my biological father who lived in another state had died suddenly. Because I had been covered under his social security plan when I was a minor and had battled cancer into adulthood (resulting in a $400,000 bill), the remaining debt of nearly $100,000 ended up in my lap. The only way I found out was when my wages began to be garnished. It turned out that a judgement was entered against me in his state, not in mine, and I never got any notice of a court date. Of course, I couldn't show up if I didn't know about it (I didn't even learn of his death until months after, he had been out of my life for many years) so a default judgement was entered. The other state's court system somehow didn't have my home address but knew where I worked and how to garnish my paycheck. After speaking with a lawyer about it, I was told it would have ended up costing me tens of thousands of dollars and years of court battles with no guarantee of resolution. I ended up filing bankruptcy not long after due to the garnishment and other factors causing me to risk losing my house, and by some miracle the federal government allowed the judgement to be attached to the bankruptcy case.