Hello all!!! Hopefully someone can assist me. I have really gotten really serious about my credit, and have really started paying attention to my credit reports recently. I notice that on my EQ report it says I have 2 judgements, on EX it says I have 4, and TU says I have 0. I have considered hiring a lawyer that is experienced in debt or credit issues. But the only ones I've found only deal in bankrupcy and have told me that they can't help me, the other one only sends out dispute letters. Don't know if what i'm looking for exists. My issue is that 1 of the judgments is from discover from a discover card i had before i went to college in 1999, and my mom told me she'd been paying the bill and never did. the other is from an apartment i live with with my now ex-boyfriend. after the lease was up, we moved. I found out that he'd secretly kept the apartment. when i found out, i went to the leasing office, and asked if i was still on the lease, they said yes. i tried to get my name off of the lease, but they said that he'd have to renew the lease in his name, before i could take my name off. anyways, the apartment had some damages when he left. the third is from the next aparment complex we moved to. we put in our notice that we were moving, and moved at the end of our complex. and they have a judgment of $5000!!! I don't even know what this amount is for?? carpet cleaning cannot cost that much. and the last judgement is from the last apartment complex that we were at. I had the last straw with him, and moved. before moving however, i made sure that my name was removed from the lease. i received a call from the manager telling me he owed money. i told her that i didn't keep in contact with him, but that my name was removed from the lease. she said it hadn't, and that my name was still on the lease, and that i was still responsible for what he owed. after speaking with her for a while, she found the paperwork, and apologized. but now, i suddenly see his owed balance on my credit report. i never knew about any of these judgements though, until recently. i didn't even know that there were any owed balances. I was reading somewhere that the federal law states that they have to service you notice to appear in court. I never even received a statement that there were any owed balances or a notice to appear in court. Given this, what is my recourse, and what type of attourney can i contact? I currently live in maryland, but all of these occurances happened in virginia. for my discover card, my mailing address was georgia however. and when looking at what laws credit agencies have to abide by, what state law do you go by? the state you lived in when you got the credit, or your current physical state? any help would be appreciated. i feel like every time i made a good step forward towards financial freedom, i always end up having to take 2 steps back. THANKS!!