Vacated judgment STILL showing up on all 3 CRs

[Anonymous]

I had a vacated judgment that was showing up on all three credit reports, TWICE (with differing identification numbers) on TU and EX. First dispute came back verified. 

Second dispute included a copy of the filed consent order vacating the judgment. TU wrote back that it had been deleted. EQ sent me a letter that states "The disputed judgment docket XXXXXX is currently not reporting ont he Equifax credit file." I infer this means that the docket number from the court does not match the docket number that they're reporting, but I do not know for certain. 

I just looked at my 3-in-1, and the judgment is still on my TU--but only once this time--on the EQ, and the EX twice. (No communication from EX yet.)

I'm of a mind to make a third dispute in writing, telling them that there are no judgments against me in any jurisdiction, and that they need to actually read what I had sent them before, in addition to confirming this with the county court. But I don't know if that's the best way to handle this. 

This is wholly irritating. 

All advice is welcome

[kal9988]

Here's what I would do. First of all, verify that the County Recorder has updated your public record with the vacated notice. The CRA's contact the County Recorder's office to verify public records. The court may have vacated it, but it might have not gotten through to the Recorder's office yet.

Once you are sure that your record lists it vacated, dispute it again. Anything documents you send the CRA's are meaningless -- I've tried that many times in the past. They will only validate what the other side says. They will contact the County Recorder to validate that it was vacated. You may need to try this several times, as some of the CRA's outsource their customer service overseas, where the reps might not be able to grasp your point due to the language barrier. (I had a TU rep tell me one thing and then the complete opposite 30 seconds later.)

If, after multiple attempts, you still have no luck, file a complaint with the BBB.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

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@kal9988 wrote:

Here's what I would do. First of all, verify that the County Recorder has updated your public record with the vacated notice. The CRA's contact the County Recorder's office to verify public records. The court may have vacated it, but it might have not gotten through to the Recorder's office yet.

Once you are sure that your record lists it vacated, dispute it again. Anything documents you send the CRA's are meaningless -- I've tried that many times in the past. They will only validate what the other side says. They will contact the County Recorder to validate that it was vacated. You may need to try this several times, as some of the CRA's outsource their customer service overseas, where the reps might not be able to grasp your point due to the language barrier. (I had a TU rep tell me one thing and then the complete opposite 30 seconds later.)

If, after multiple attempts, you still have no luck, file a complaint with the BBB.

Good luck!

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BBB complaints, as well as FTC complaints, are generally effective against credit bureaus.

It is actually quite common for the same judgment to be listed twice on a credit report.  What most people fail to realize is that it is not usually the court clerk who reports these judgments to the CRAs.  Court records are public records and they are routinely scanned by private-party data aggregators who then sell the information to the CRAs.  It is also a common misconception that the CRAs contact the court clerk when their is a dispute.  CRAs contact the source of the reported data and 9 times out of 10 the source is a data aggregator.  This data aggregator may or may not then contact the actual court clerk for verification; often they do not.

I would break down a solution into two basic steps:

1.  Obtain documentation from the court clerk's office that there is only one judgment and what that docket number is;

2.  Once the CRAs are reporting only one -- the correct -- judgment, then hit them with documentation that the judgment has been vacated.

Be prepared to contact the CRAs multiple times for each step since their average front-line dispute staff generally is overworked, underpaid and just not too bright.

Or just go to the BBB / FTC right from the start.

[kal9988]

Hmm O6 I felt there might have been something missing. I have a judgment on my CR's and I email the county clerk, who said "We do not report information to any credit agency.  However, these agencies do obtain information from our public records."

So I assume one of those private-party data aggregators was the one who posted the judgment on my CR's. Is there any way to find out for sure which company is supplying the data?

[Anonymous]

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@kal9988 wrote:

Hmm O6 I felt there might have been something missing. I have a judgment on my CR's and I email the county clerk, who said "We do not report information to any credit agency.  However, these agencies do obtain information from our public records."

So I assume one of those private-party data aggregators was the one who posted the judgment on my CR's. Is there any way to find out for sure which company is supplying the data?

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Unfortunately that is a question for which I have no answer.  I suppose somewhere the credit bureaus know who gave them the data, but whether or not there is a mechanism to get the credit bureaus to rat out the data aggregator is something I am unaware of.

You might send a PM to RobertEG.  If anybody knows, it would be him.

[Anonymous]

Thanks; I've confirmed with my state's superior court docketed judgment division that there is, in fact, no judgment.  

Isn't this an actionable violation of the FCRA?  They are continuing to report erroneous information.  I might consult the consumer attorney who assisted with the judgment.  Or I might just complain to the BBB, FTC, and the state Attorney General's office.   Or maybe I will threaten to do so when I dispute them again.  

[chasmith]

There's no "furnisher" (OC or CA) so no 623 reinvestigation would apply.

I don't see why you could do a Method of Verification letter to the CRA.  They are required to report accurately and not just rely on past reports from a service.

Is there anything in writing from the docket judgement people?

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks; I've confirmed with my state's superior court docketed judgment division that there is, in fact, no judgment.  

Isn't this an actionable violation of the FCRA?  They are continuing to report erroneous information.  I might consult the consumer attorney who assisted with the judgment.  Or I might just complain to the BBB, FTC, and the state Attorney General's office.   Or maybe I will threaten to do so when I dispute them again.  

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I do not think legal action is a viable option at this stage.

I would initiate a BBB online complaint and send a letter to the FTC.  This will get your issues in front of the CRA's executive resolutions team.   I would not submit another normal dispute since they could just ignore it as frivolous.

I would, however, in any correspondence add a sentence about how their inaccurate reporting is "causing you harm", which is something you'd usually want to show before you sue someone anyhow.