Judgement-CA no longer in business, back with medical office

[aldex]

Good morning, 

To keep it short, i have a medical judgement for a few hundred dollars. The plaintiff/CA that entered is no longer in business and returned it to the medical office. The amount the medical office has is actually less than what the judgement was for. I want to get it off my report, but i'm not sure how to approach. 

I haven't lived in the state for months and am concerned that I would have to fly back just to get it removed by the court after payment. 

Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks. 

[Anonymous]

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@aldex wrote:

Good morning, 

To keep it short, i have a medical judgement for a few hundred dollars. The plaintiff/CA that entered is no longer in business and returned it to the medical office. The amount the medical office has is actually less than what the judgement was for. I want to get it off my report, but i'm not sure how to approach. 

I haven't lived in the state for months and am concerned that I would have to fly back just to get it removed by the court after payment. 

Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks. 

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You will have to go to the court house and file a motion to vacate. Then back to the court house so the court will hear your motion. Depending on which state you live in there are different rules.

[RobertEG]

The judgment would pass to the heir in title to the debt.

If the debt collector brought the legal action and was the prevailing plaintiff, that suggests that the original creditor had sold the debt to the debt collector.

It is thus unclear as to how the debt was "returned to the medical office."

Someone retains title to the debt, and thus enforceability of the judgment.

It is unclear as to who that might be.  If the original creditor is stating that they now own the debt, it would appear that they may have been the judgment creditor?

As for removal, payment will not result in removal of the judgment.  It will have an exclusion date of 7 years from the date of entry by the court of the judgment.

You would need an additional motion to the court to vacate the actual judgment for some reason.

Some states provide the ability to vacate based on payment of the debt, while others do not.  I would begin by checking out your state statute/regs regarding vacature, and if permissible in your state, file for vacature of the judgment.  Personal appearance may or may not be required by the court.

[nmjacobs]

I had this happen with an old credit card debt. It got passed around to some CA's and then sold to LHR Inc. They went out of business during the 5th year after the judgement (I had not heard of them since it was entered). The court house told me to call the attorney who represented them locally. He was able to tell me who bought it and negotiated a settlement with the new owner ($3,000 instead of $8,000). The payments were made to the attorney and deposited into a trust account. I can't imagine this will just disappear. Most likely it was sold and they just haven't contacted you. I think they wait until you are applying for credit or appear more collectible.