What happens when you get a hardship letter approval from midland and they have a judgement?

[Anonymous]

I received a hardship letter from Midland. "Thank you for your response to our letter requesting information related to your current financial situation. We have decided to cease collection activity on this account. If we have filed a lawsuit against you we will be dismissing/discontinuing the legal action. If required by the courts we will provide you with a copy of that information for your records"   

This letter says they are stopping the collections and legal action of my account, however when I call they forward me to a different department that seems to have no knowledge of this and says I have a judgment that they have to collect. So the hardship letter I received does not count for judgments? or really anything for that matter? I am lost and feel like I am back to square one. The quote is the exact phrasing on my letter. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I call and keep getting the run around by overseas sounding debt collector.

[RobertEG]

Is MIdland the owner of the debt, or are they only assigned collection authority?

A judgment is an order by the court, and is posted to your credit report via its presence in the public record.

Ceasing collection on the judgment debt does not vacate the judgment, and thus wont per se remove it from the public record or your credit report.

Ceasing collection means they will no longer continued efforts to collect, which would include seeking a writ of satisfaction that orders specific taking of property or garnishment of assets.  They might cancel the debt, resulting is sending of a form 1099c to you and to the IRS, making the cancelled debt taxable.

In my opinion, you have a discharged debt, which now makes the reported judgment subject to credit report exclusion at 7 years from the date of entry of the judgment.

[Anonymous]

Midland is the owner. They filed the judgement on real property. Its off my credit report, but it stops me from being able to refinance my home. We have a ton of medical and financial stuff going on. I am just trying to clear the board. Midland is the last hurdle. How would one go about vacating a judgment from a discharged debt? Wouldent a judgement on real property records still be a collection activity? Thank you for your help

[RobertEG]

If the judgement creditor considers the judgment to be satisfied by their decision to discharge the debt, then they should notify the court under the rules of civil procedure that the judgment is discharged.  I would contact the debt collector and request they advise the court that the judgment debt has been discharged, as required under the rules of civil procedure. 

They may assert that "ceasing collection activity" does not mean they have legally cancelled the debt.  They may simply mean that they wll discontinue collection activities, but have not legally cancelled the debt per se.  You need further definition of their meaning.  
Asking them to confirm that the debt is cancelled is a way to get their statement of their meaning.

Once the debt has been reported to the court as discharged, either by payment or cancelllation, then the judgment becomes subject to exclusion from your credit report no later than 7 years from the date of the judgment.  FCRA 605(a)(2).  Discharge does not per se require removal of the judgment.