How long before Public Records fall off?

[anderl]

I got into credit card trouble over 8 years ago and ,to make a long story short, they all went into collection. I paid all but one before they went to judgemnt. The last, and biggest-$12,000 went to judgment and became a civil action/ judgement was filed in 4/2003. Agreed on a payment plan with Pressler/Pressler Law Offices to pay monthly on the debt, and by 10/2005 was paid in full. It is still on my CR's and I wanted to know when it would drop off-I've heard that it depends on my state's Statute Of Limitations. I am in NJ and the SOL in NJ for CC's(open accounts) is 6yrs. But for Domestic Judgements is 20yrs. Is this considered a domestic judgement or a judgement on an  open account. I thought,and am hoping, that since it's a CC that it would be an open acc.judgement, but does the fact that it went to a Law Firm and became a Civil Action make it otherwise- Obviously there's nothing I can do right now but wait it out. Thanks

[Anonymous]

Judgments stay on for 7 years from the date that the lawsuit was filed.

Some states have fair credit reporting statutes that benefit consumers more than the federal FCRA--like NY, where paid judgments only report for 5 years from the date the lawsuit was filed.  But I think NJ is just the standard 7 year reporting rule.

Neither of the SOL's matter in terms of reporting--not the SOL for how long they can sue you for the debt, or the SOL for how long they can use certain remedies for collecting on the judgment.

[anderl]

Thank you-Thank you-Thank you! I really was hoping the time frame would be around 7yrs., so now it will fall off 4/2010-once it does fall of, what effect does it have on one's score? And again thank you for answering so quickly- I have totally become a Fico Addict- I came to this Forum with scores barely in the 500's  only 4 months ago and today am @ 708TU and 680EQ w/696EX-WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN ABLE TO DO IT WITHOUT PEOPLE LIKE YOU-I am learning sooooo much and want to continue to learn-someday,who knows,I"ll be able to help someone else!  PAY IT FORWARD!

[Anonymous]

Hard to say.  If it's your only judgment, then you could see a significant increase.

But keep in mind, right now you are "bucketed" with other people who have one (or more) judgments.  That means that your credit information is compared with people who are similarly situated to you, and you compare well against them.

Once you have no judgments reporting, you are re-bucketed with other people who have no judgments.  Their credit will generally be better than the people who did have judgments.  So the question is how well will you stack up with them?

It's possible, therefore, that your score could go down.  In any bucket, most of us are in the middle, and a few are at the bottom, and a few are at the top.  Whatever ding you take on the re-bucketing, will gradually lessen as you build your good history.

[anderl]

Your probably right-even though,from what I've read, I tend to think that I'll be rebucketed only once the judgement falls off(could be totally wrong)-and that's fine. I figure that once TU corrects my judgement as being paid, I'll still be in the bucket w/people who have 1 judgement- and I'll have a good 8/9 mnths of increasing score to fall back on so once the judgment does fall off,  a 50-60 pt. drop won't be so bad. The strange thing is EXP-report is correct w/1 satisfied judgement and 1 paid tax lien w/696, EQ-reports same tax lien twice, 1 as paid and the other as not paid and NO JUDGEMENT w/680 and of course TU-reports 1 paid tax lien and 1 unpaid $12,000 judgement w/708.

[IOBA]

Someone files a lawsuit/judgement against you.

You go to court.

You win.  They lose.  They owe you money because you countersued and won.

How do you get that off the credit report? 

How do you make sure your judgement (that you won) ends up on their credit report? 

[creditwherecreditisdue]

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@IOBA wrote:

Someone files a lawsuit/judgement against you.

You go to court.

You win.  They lose.  They owe you money because you countersued and won.

How do you get that off the credit report? 

How do you make sure your judgement (that you won) ends up on their credit report? 

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Their judgment won't be removed until it is vacated. Was it vacated? Do you have or can you get a copy of the order vacating the judgment? If it is still reporting and you have a copy of the court order vacating it file a dispute and send the court order along. If you do not have a copy of the court order do not dispute.

Your judgment will be reported on their CBR'a automatically when it is picked up by one of the services that scan court records for that information.

Message Edited by creditwherecreditisdue on 09-03-2009 07:59 PM

[Anonymous]

Sounds more like the judgment never existed, so it should be a matter of sending in the docket sheet to show that the judgment was against the other side.  And a copy of the order that shows the outcome.

If IOBA was appealing a judgment that would be one thing, or even if there ever was a judgment in the first place.  But this sounds like the plaintiff filed, IOBA counter-sued and won.  In that case, there never was a judgment except in favor of IOBA.  Probably can't make sure that the judgment against the other person does report, but there definitely should not be a judgment against IOBA reporting.

[creditwherecreditisdue]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Sounds more like the judgment never existed, so it should be a matter of sending in the docket sheet to show that the judgment was against the other side.  And a copy of the order that shows the outcome.

If IOBA was appealing a judgment that would be one thing, or even if there ever was a judgment in the first place.  But this sounds like the plaintiff filed, IOBA counter-sued and won.  In that case, there never was a judgment except in favor of IOBA.  Probably can't make sure that the judgment against the other person does report, but there definitely should not be a judgment against IOBA reporting.

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Only IOBA can post and clarify her issue. 

A judgment was entered in the court's computer and picked up by the CRB's bot's. How else did it get there? As far as the CRB's are concerned it is valid. Getting it removed will require a document and/or action from the court. A CB dispute should not do it in the absence of proof.

Message Edited by creditwherecreditisdue on 09-03-2009 08:01 PM

[Anonymous]

My suspicion is that it's just laziness on the part of whatever company is scanning the court records.

They see plaintiff v. defendant, and that there was a judgment at the bottom the docket.  Didn't check to see who the judgment was against, probably because it's so rare for the judgment in these creditor/debtor kinds of cases to go against the plaintiff.  Dismissals are more common, but to actually get a $$ judgment against a plaintiff is highly unusual.

Sending in the docket sheet, making sure the docket number/civil action number exactly matches what is on the credit reports, along with a copy of the judgment court order should do the trick.  If they don't accept that, then they really just don't care.

Message Edited by jesslyn on 09-03-2009 06:57 PM

Message Edited by jesslyn on 09-03-2009 06:58 PM