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Fighting back....

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Fighting back....

Good day all,

 

Not sure if this is the area to post this so feel free to move it Smiley Tongue  Our situation is... I just found out today that a creditor/collector placed a Judgment/Public record on my wife's credit report (it was filed to the court back in 2009). After calling the County Court , they told me the name of the person on the Court Docket and it turned out to be my mother!!??? I of course will dispute this to have it removed. So the deal is, can I take on any legal actions against this creditor since we know this Judgment does not belong to us?

Message 1 of 9
8 REPLIES 8
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Fighting back....

You could, but you'd have a tough time. You have to prove damages. What are your damages? A stamp to the CRA? Plus if it's a judgment reporting, then know that the judgment isn't reported by the creditor; it's reported by the court. You'd have to go after them, or get proof showing the creditor intentionally mixed your name up with your mom's.

Message 2 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Fighting back....

Thanks for the reply,

 

From what your saying, the Court made this mistake? We contacted the original creditor and the third party debt collector, both said they didn't report anything to my wife's credit report???? From what I understand, to put a Judgment against someone and have it reported to the bureaus, one must meet two criteria out of the 4 or 5...names, address, dob etc.. Well I'm not really sure who made the mistake, but since my mother did live with us and both my wife and mom have the same letter of the first name I can see where the mistake came from. I would not be so upset at this point but the only reason is we are in the process of getting mortgage...And I would have not caught this if our LO had not sent a copy of credit report to us. So anyhow, we disputed this and I hope we can move further along in the UW process... I'm still pissed about this...Smiley Mad

Message 3 of 9
llecs
Moderator Emeritus

Re: Fighting back....

OCs and CAs can't report judgments. Only the court can have a judgment reported.

 

I'd be upset too. Somehow the court got the info jumbled up. If it's your mom's and she was never served, she might be able to get it vacated thus resulting in a deletion. And of course dispute with the court's records showing that it isn't yours.

Message 4 of 9
RobertEG
Legendary Contributor

Re: Fighting back....

A judgment is a public record that can be discovered by anyone, and reported if they have a reporting agreement with the CRA.  Only a court can issue a judgment, but courts rarely report to CRAs.  They arent in the credit business, and have no 'dawg in that game.

 

CRAs hire researchers to peruse public records.  One cannot assume that reporting stemmed from either the court or the judgment creditor.

To determine the actual reporting party, you can always file a request with the CRA under FCRA 609(a)(1) and (2), and require the CRA to provide you that information (for the fee of $11.00). 

 

You can file a direct dispute with that party, provided you have their name.  If not, you can dispute through the CRA, which compels them to forward the dispute to the party who reported the information to them.

 

Damages for reporting of inaccurate information are only sanctioned under the FCRA by a showing of either their negligence, which entitles actual damages (section 617) or that the information was knowingly incorrect when reported, which additionaly entitles punitive damages (section 616).  Hard nuts to crack.....

 

Find out who reported.

Message 5 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Fighting back....

Yeah we did dispute it, but wow what bad timing Smiley Sad At least I know now that it was the Court system that did this and anyone can make mistakes right Smiley Tongue I only hope that once its off my wife's credit report that the score (if applicable) would go back up..??? Is my main concern at this point.

Message 6 of 9
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Fighting back....

I just read your post, before I posted LOL.. I really didn't want to make this a big deal but as a consumer we are all tired of this kind of stuff that get mixed up and what we have to do to fix it!!! Like I said before, just because my wife's first name just happen to have the same starting letter on her first name and same the address (since she lived with us) this stuff happened?? If in fact if it was some creditor, debt collector.. I feel that it was just a hunch on their part. I want to fight this all the way but I want more opinions from anyone here. I'm still pissed....

 

What a great community MYFICO.com lots of wonderful support

Message 7 of 9
llecs
Moderator Emeritus
Moved:

Re: Fighting back....

Message 8 of 9
GregB
Valued Contributor

Re: Fighting back....

There was a judgement against your mother. The CRA matched it up as well as they could but it ended up on your wifes credit report due to the addresses matching and similar names. It is a simple matter to contact them and fix the error.

 

One of the problems of having a deadbeat for a relative is that the damage will hit many of the people around them. At least this is easy to fix. Imagine if it was your wife or your child that caused the problem...........Much bigger problem.

Message 9 of 9
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