Perhaps you’re familiar with this scenario:
Your creditor threatened a court-ordered judgment but you thought that, if you waited long enough, he would get tired of pursuing you and let it go! Unfortunately, that’s not how it turned out and now you discovered:
“I Have a Judgement On My Credit Report!”
What’s worse, you didn’t realize how much this would affect your credit score. The fact is, a judgment can remain on your credit history anywhere from 10-12 years and, if the debt is still unpaid at the end of this time period, your creditor may be able to renew the judgment. Even a paid judgment will remain on your credit report for 7 years from the date paid!
So, you’re wondering how to go about removing the judgment. The first thing you need to know is that it is legal for a credit reporting bureau to remove an inaccurate entry. Also, a judgment may be deleted if it is disputed and not verified by the creditor within the mandated time period.
The Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) was enacted in order to allow consumers to dispute credit items which are negative in nature. Judgments and public records are included in the FCRA.
To dispute a judgment on your credit report, you should send a dispute letter to the credit bureaus which are reporting the judgment. There are three major credit reporting agencies – TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax.
With other types of negative entries such as credit card debt and carloans, the credit reporting agency would be forwarding the dispute to creditors such as credit card companies, banks, car dealerships, loan companies, etc.
However, with a judgment or public record, the credit reporting agency will forward the dispute to the governmental agency which maintains the judgment, normally located in the county courthouse of your resident county. Recording and verifying judgments is performed by county employees, not high-tech automated software programs.
As it takes longer for a human to search legal records and verify a judgment or public record than clicking a computer key a few times, it is often the case that a judgment or public record request for verification is unable to be completed within the 30-day time limit. If this is the case, the credit reporting agency is legally required to remove the judgment entry and give you a clear credit history of this item.
If you are hesitant about taking this process on yourself, you might consider employing the services of a seasoned and knowledgeable consumer rights credit attorney. An attorney who specializes in consumer rights has likely resolved hundreds, if not thousands, of similar cases during his career.
Consider The Lexington Law Firm, who has removed thousands of judgment related entries.
To get started removing your judgment, dial: 800-230-1954. You will receive a free consultation and learn about ways to dispute questionable judgments on your credit history.
Tags: judgement against me, judgment on credit report, judgment what do i do