Negotiating a Judgment

Anonymous · ‎04-25-2011

I have a couple of questions that I don't seem to find an answer for and maybe someone can help answering. I have an outstanding Judgment that I want to negotiate a settlement for but I'm not sure who I should be contacting, is it the Attorney who filed the Judgment or the Creditor? Is this something that can be done by a regular Joe or is this something that I should hire an attorney for. The Judgment is 10K now with interest. Thanks in advance for the input.

happy0510 · ‎04-25-2011

Call the attorney who owns the judgment. You should be able to negotiate a smaller payoff with a lump sum payment. Good luck and welcome!

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Anonymous · ‎04-26-2011

@Anonymous wrote:
I have a couple of questions that I don't seem to find an answer for and maybe someone can help answering. I have an outstanding Judgment that I want to negotiate a settlement for but I'm not sure who I should be contacting, is it the Attorney who filed the Judgment or the Creditor? Is this something that can be done by a regular Joe or is this something that I should hire an attorney for. The Judgment is 10K now with interest. Thanks in advance for the input.

You would call the judgment creditor as the attorney needs their approval to settle anyhow. You should be aware, however, that once you contact them they can start to look again at the judgment and decide to start enforcing it should you ultimately not come to agreement.

Anonymous · ‎04-27-2011

The creditor in this case is Midland, from reading different post in myfico forum some have success while others seem to be frustrated with dealing with them. I want to offer a lump sum (50%) settlement to them to satisfy this judgment. My only questions again are where to start and is this something that would rather be negotiated using an attorney or am I better off going at this on my own. Would an alternative should they decide to not settle be to set up a payment plan through them or the courts? Thanks again for the advice, I appreciate it.

Anonymous · ‎04-27-2011

@Anonymous wrote:
The creditor in this case is Midland, from reading different post in myfico forum some have success while others seem to be frustrated with dealing with them. I want to offer a lump sum (50%) settlement to them to satisfy this judgment. My only questions again are where to start and is this something that would rather be negotiated using an attorney or am I better off going at this on my own. Would an alternative should they decide to not settle be to set up a payment plan through them or the courts? Thanks again for the advice, I appreciate it.

It is generally better to have an attorney do this for you, but perhaps you might want to give it a try on your own first. You may be able to save some money.

I would contact the judgment creditor and see if they are open to a settlement. If so, the final cost will depend on your negotiating skills and tactics.

If they are not interested in a settlement or you cannot reach an agreement on amount, you may want to be ready to offer a payment plan. This does not need to go through the court and, frankly, at this late stage of the game is probably not even possible. If your attempts at settlement fail, a repayment plan is a good idea because the judgment creditor may otherwise decide to try and enforce their judgment against you.