Goodwill letter for public records/judgements?

[Fitzgibbons]

I have a judgement in cook county IL against discover card I was hoping to get removed. Do goodwill letters work for judgements/public records? Anyone have experience with cook county? who do I email?

[Anonymous]

GW letters are generally used to get a creditor to remove reporting on late payments or on collections, and usually only successful where these have almost fallen off on their own or, in the case of late payments, where the debtor has a decent excuse (illness, laid off, etc) as to why the payment in question was late (late, but eventually was paid, not missing entirely).

Judgments are a whole other ball game. These are reported by the county where the judge signed it. They can also be made to follow you, into another county/state, if the creditor gets an abstract of judgment from the issuing county and files it in the new county. These are much more serious, and much harder to remove. The judgment would have to be vacated or paid, and then a release filed in the county records. Sometimes it might be possible to negotiate a settlement for less than the full judgment amount - which will include the original debt plus court costs, and in some states attorneys fees, with interest on all of it since the day it was signed - some creditors will accept a lesser amount, especially if the statute on collecting it has almost run, or they know you don't have any assets they could pursue anyway. If they accept payment, reduced or full, and file a satisfaction of judgment/release, then the record will update on your credit report.

The creditor just isn't likely to do it without some sort of payment, since they've already put additional funds into getting the judgment (filing fees, service, attorneys).

The county clerk certainly isn't going to touch it for any reason without the judge telling her to.

[Fitzgibbons]

Everything is paid and done with.

So, are you saying I can ask the creditor to ask the county to remove it?

[RobertEG]

Public record information is not reported to CRAs by anyone, and thus you cant request their GW deletion, as there is no reporting party to consider it.

Public record information is posted to consumer credit files by way of searches of the public record conducted by the CRAs.

It is simillar to filing a direct dispute related to public record information.

Public record information is specifically exempted under the implementing rules from use of the direct dispute process for the same reason.... there is no "furnisher" to which the dispute can be sent.

Any dispute of public record information must be made via the CRA, who then does not forward to any furnisher, and verifies on their own by re-checking the public record posting to determine if it is still in effect.

To remove a judgment, you must get the court to remove it from the public record.

Once that is done, notify the CRA to re-check the public record.

[Fitzgibbons]

ok, how do i get the court to remove it from public record?

[Anonymous]

Look it up on your states court website. Find out what the process is and research to make sure they allow it. You need to spend some time and effort researching this on your own as well. Start by finding out the processes in your state and county.

Is this a PAID/SATISFIED judgement? If not, unless you can prove you were not properly served, you don't have a chance.

[Fitzgibbons]

Yes, it's all paid off.

So, it is "how to vacate a judgement" i'm looking for?

[Anonymous]

Google "how to vacate a judgement" in your state!!!

Every State is different.

[gdale6]

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@Fitzgibbons wrote:

Yes, it's all paid off.

So, it is "how to vacate a judgement" i'm looking for?

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In the states codified laws (state where the judgment was granted) there are a set of laws that govern the civil court system. These laws contain the events that can be used to vacate a judgment, in some of them the fact that it was paid is a valid reason. In any case a motion has to be filed in the court the granted to to have it vacated on grounds that it has been paid. If its granted then the paid judgment can be removed from your CRs. Another way to get it done if you cant file said motion yourself is to see if the judgment creditor will file the motion for you. In some states once its paid then its expunged and an expungement is the same as a vacate, the CRAs have to remove it.