Judgement SOL info needed ASAP!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Community,

       Before I get the info i'm requesting.....I'd like to take a min to wish everyone the very best holidays, and

an even better kickass year!!!!

       So with that being said, I now need some advice/knowledge from the Credit Masters at Myfico.

       This is how it breaks down: Had a Cap1 CC in the year 2001. During this point in history responsability wasn't my forte

& low & behold I stopped paying. Well the good folks over at Cap1 closed acct,charged-off and blessed me with my first ever

debt collector hitsquad. It got ugly for this snotty nosed 19 yearold fast cuz I had no idea what was in store for me.

       Fastforward a few years(02/2002 1st day delinquency) to end of 2004 & the initial $500 credit limit has bolooned to $2000

and the calls continue to roll in. NEVER MADE 1 PAYMENT or even promised 1 for that matter.

       Well turns out I was sued in Lynn district court by Cap1 or collection company claiming to be them. On April of 2007 a Judgement

against me in the amount of $2000 was granted and the obvious question is..........Shouldn't this thing have disappeared long ago?

       Can it be legally reaged because it went from a collection to a judgement???? Please help!!!

[chasmith]

It sounds like they sued you, you didn't respond or contest the suit, and they got a default judgment.  The judgment has a life of its own and will report as a public record.  Generally judgments have longer lifetimes (could be 10 or 20 years) and can be renewed.  So the date of the judgment will be different from the TL for the account, this isn't reaging, it is because the judgment is a public record and a different item.

More importantly, they can take action (such as wage garnishment) to enforce collection of that $2,000.00 plus interest from the time the judgment was granted.   You need to be very careful about trying to negotiate with them because you can wake them up to come after you, and they hold a lot more cards because of the judgment.

You probably need to look at your ability to pay this off, remembering it has probably accrued 7 years of interest and so may be $5,000.00 now.  You basically have three options.  You can pay it in full if you have the money, negotiating to have it vacated (vacating a judgement is the only way to remove it).  You can negotiate a payment plan to pay in full or partially as a settlement.  The really long shot you would need to speak to a local attorney about, would be to try to vacate the default judgement by arguing you were never served for the original suit.  If the court would allow that, I'm not sure whether the SOL would then prevent them from reinstating the suit, another reason you need a consultation with an attorney.

Your next step would be to contact the clerk of the court to get copies of all the documents - the complaint, the proof of service, the record of the court poceeding that granted the judgement and the judgement itself.  You'll need all that to take to a lawyer meeting.

If you do nothing it will just sit there accruing interest.  If you ever want to buy a home you'll have to deal with it, and they could at any time sell it to a JDB who will come after you, or come after you themselves.  I'm sort of surprised they haven't.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Community,

       Before I get the info i'm requesting.....I'd like to take a min to wish everyone the very best holidays, and

an even better kickass year!!!!

       So with that being said, I now need some advice/knowledge from the Credit Masters at Myfico.

       This is how it breaks down: Had a Cap1 CC in the year 2001. During this point in history responsability wasn't my forte

& low & behold I stopped paying. Well the good folks over at Cap1 closed acct,charged-off and blessed me with my first ever

debt collector hitsquad. It got ugly for this snotty nosed 19 yearold fast cuz I had no idea what was in store for me.

       Fastforward a few years(02/2002 1st day delinquency) to end of 2004 & the initial $500 credit limit has bolooned to $2000

and the calls continue to roll in. NEVER MADE 1 PAYMENT or even promised 1 for that matter.

       Well turns out I was sued in Lynn district court by Cap1 or collection company claiming to be them. On April of 2007 a Judgement

against me in the amount of $2000 was granted and the obvious question is..........Shouldn't this thing have disappeared long ago?

       Can it be legally reaged because it went from a collection to a judgement???? Please help!!!

---

The statute of limitations for credit card debt in MA is currently 6 years.  It would appear that they were well within the SOL when they sued you and obtained judgment. 

The judgment itself has a SOL for enforcement purposes of 20 years and statutory interest of 10% per year plus any costs assessed by the court and, if awarded, legal fees.  That said, there are provisions to extend a judgment beyond 20 years.

Judgments may appear on your credit report as a public record for up to 7 years from date of entry or until the SOL on judgments expires.  Credit reporting agencies usually delete after 7 years.

I would suspect that at this point you only have three options:

1.  Relax and enjoy the ride hoping that the judgment creditor never tries to enforce their judgment or that the judgment appearing on your credit reports does not cause you to lose further credit opportunities;

2.  Talk to the judgment creditor and try to reach a mutually beneficial agreement on satisfying the judgment;

3.  Look into the possibility that you were not properly served and try to have the judgment vacated.  This, however, could be tricky.  First of all, the judge will order a hearing after which he may or may not order the judgment vacated.  Even if the judgment is ultimately vacated, the judge may or may not allow the creditor the opportunity to cure the situation by suing you again in spite of the 6-year SOL on credit card debt.  If the judge does not vacate the judgment, look for the judgment creditor to take a renewed interest in collecting on the judgment -- often with a vengence.  It is important to understand that just because you did not personally receive any papers regarding the lawsuit does not mean you were not properly served.

In my opinion, it's a tough call.  I might take option #1 as long as having the judgment on your credit report does not cause you problems.  If it does, I might go for option #3 if there appears to be defective service because during the minor legal skirmish there would be an opportunity to find a motivated judgment creditor ready to negotiate.