Old Judgement and the CC company is out of business

[Anonymous]

Hello, newbie here...I was sued by Providian in 2009, they won a default judgement against me; the assigned collection attorney firm was North Star Acquisition LLC. As of July 2016, the judgement is no longer on my credit reports. Providian went out of business and was sold to Washington Mutual in 2005 and eventually sold to Chase in 2008. If I am required to pay the judgement who do I pay? I don't know where to start. TIA

[Anonymous]

You should start by going to or calling the civil clerks office where the judgement resides and find out who currently owns the judgement.

[Anonymous]

Hi donny10 I went to the clerks office already made copies of the court file and there is no indication of who owns the judgement now.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi donny10 I went to the clerks office already made copies of the court file and there is no indication of who owns the judgement now.

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Robert please...

Robert will pop up and advise.

[RobertEG]

I would begin by contacting the attorney who represented the judgment creditor, and requesting the name of the heir in title to the debt.

What is a bit confusing is who was actually the prevailing plaintiff.

If the debt collector did not own the debt, and was merely an assigned collection agent, then the prevailing plaintiff would likely have been the creditor.

I would contact the attorney of record for the plaintiff named in the civil action.

In cases where a debtor cannot locate the current owner of the judgment debt, most states have provisions, either in law or regulation, that permit the defendant to submit directly to the court a statement of lack of ability to contact the current owner, in which case the court can accept the payment, and will place the funds in an escrow account to be held until contacted by the owner.

Thus, make what you consider to be reasonble efforts, document them, and if they all fail, contact the court and make payment to them.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for responding Robert. You are correct, the debt collector did not own the debt. North Star was assigned by Providian to collect on their behalf. Therefore the prevailing plaintiff was Providian (original creditor).

So to be clear, 

1) I should reach out to North Star Acquisition and ask for the name of the heir in title to my debt? 

2) If North Star has the name of the heir in title to my debt, I pay the heir to satisfy the judgement?

3) Or, If North Star is not able to tell me who the heir of my debt is, I should contact the court clerk's office to set up payment through them once I've done due diligence to locate the heir of my debt?

This is the best response I've received foe my dilemma.

[RobertEG]

I would contact the prevailing plaintiff, Providian, beginning with the attorney of record who reprented them at trial.

The name of the attorney who represented them should be in the court record.

[Anonymous]

 Will do