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Removing a judgement that should have never been filed - HELP!

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Anonymous
Not applicable

Removing a judgement that should have never been filed - HELP!

I had some personal financial issues that led to a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in October of 2005. 

My Transunion is 578 and Equifax 590.  One reason is the new credit cards I have established since the bankruptcy are near max, although my pay histories are perfect and my last late payment was sometime in the summer/fall of 2005.  As far as my new balances, which are $5302 on total available credit of $5350, I'll pay those down next payday to under 30% (my income is variable - every few months I'll get a very large check, my next one will be more than enough to pay off $5000 plus regular bills and still throw some in savings) - the simulator said that would get me into the 600s on both bureaus - but on both reports the first negative is the judgements/public records.  Which I have 2, the Chapter 7, and a judgement from one of the creditors in the bankruptcy...but read on:

That one creditor that was included in that bankruptcy illegally filed a judgement against me AFTER the bankruptcy had been filed and after they confirmed with me that they had recieved the notice that I filed..

I am aware that per bankruptcy law, once a bankruptcy is filed, it puts an automatic stay on all creditors, meaning that they cannot continue to pursue collection efforts.  Despite that, the above creditor filed a judgement against me in December of 2005.  The judgement itself was NOT filed until December of 2005, therefore was in violation of law.

The credit report marked it “satisfied” on my credit, but as you know that doesn’t matter - the very PRESENCE of such an account is what hurts me.  Do I have any sort of a chance at asking them to completely remove it since the judgement never should have been filed anyway, and doing so was in violation of bankruptcy law?  It’s probably the thing keeping my score so low even though I have cleaned up all the other accounts, and everything that was included is correctly indicated on my credit report (shows “in bankruptcy” with 0/nonexistent/nonreported balances, pay histories, etc)

The Bankruptcy I know I can't remove, but that judgement never should have been filed - it was a violation of the mandatory "stay" during a BK filing.  I thought I could request they "vacate" the judgement and remove it entirely, what do you think?

I'd think that paying down my cards, PLUS the total disappearence of that judgement would put me in the solid 620 - 640 range.



Message Edited by Joe77 on 08-03-2007 08:09 AM
Message 1 of 27
26 REPLIES 26
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: first post - judgement shouldn't have been there

Nobody??
Message 2 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: first post - judgement shouldn't have been there

This is a legal question first more than a credit question.  I would call the BK court and ask them what you do in this situation where a judgment was illegally filed by the creditor.  They should be able to tell you how to approach it, what Motion to file or whatever.  Then once you get the official piece of paper from the court, I'd send it on the CRAs to dispute the judgment, perhaps as "not mine."  I think the TL would have been properly listed as IIB, but not the judgment if it was never supposed to be yours in the first place.  Let us know what you find out.
Message 3 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: first post - judgement shouldn't have been there

I am trying to get somewhere with the courts.  In the meantime, I thought I'd see if I could GW the judgement off all three bureaus by writing to TU, EQ, and EX.  We'll see.
 
Message 4 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: first post - judgement shouldn't have been there

The plaintiff admits their error and is working to vacate the judgement - which should work, but as a backup I am sending this GW type letter to the court itself:
 

Municipal Court

XXXX Main St.
City, ST 00000

 

During the summer of 2005, I fell behind on several bills due to a loss of income at my job, business slowed and my income was reduced by nearly half.  One of the debts I fell behind on was an installment loan I had with XXXX Bank.  XXXX Bank did file a complaint regarding this debt with your office on August 31, 2005, case number XXXX.  At this time I was in the process of filing Chapter 7 Bankruptcy.  I did end up filing my petition for Chapter 7 on October 3, 2005 (case number XXXXX, discharged February 2006), and this above debt with XXXX Bank was among the debts/creditors included in the petition.

 

As I’m sure you’re aware, upon filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy petition, all attempts to collect debts by a creditor must be halted, yet this above-mentioned case was not terminated or vacated, and, in fact the judgement against me was filed anyway, on December 9, 2005.  I realize this may simply have been an error, and I do not feel that any intentional violation of bankruptcy law was committed here.  However, as this debt to XXXX Bank was included in my October Chapter 7 filing, this judgement should have never happened, and the effect it has on my credit rating by it’s very presence is therefore unfair and unnecessary (and a “double whammy” of sorts with the bankruptcy itself there) as I attempt to rebuild a good credit rating.  In fact all three of my FICO scores reflect that the main reason for being as low as they are is “derogatory public record or collection filed” and I have TWO – my bankruptcy, which of course is undisputable, and this judgement, which never should have occurred, per Ohio bankruptcy law.  Simply removing this errant judgement would have a great positive impact on my FICO credit scores.

 

Therefore, I’d like to respectfully request that your office, in a gesture of goodwill, please contact all three major credit reporting agencies, TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax, and instruct them that this judgement should not appear on my credit report, at all, and, if asked to verify it’s existence by the aforementioned credit reporting agencies in the future, to please ask that it be removed.  It currently shows up as “satisfied” as of June, 2006, which is when my attorney, Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe, informed you of my Chapter 7 filing.  However, this has not solved the problem.  Having worked in the finance and credit business for 8 years, I am well aware that showing a judgement on a credit report, whether satisfied or open, is detrimental, it’s very presence is the problem.  Totally removing it in it’s entirety, so that it never shows up in the first place, is the only real solution, and I’d hope you can work with me on this matter.

 

Please respond back to me at the address below, as soon as possible.  Please note I have relocated and am no longer at the address you have on file in this case.  I thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

 

Sincerely,

 

 

Joe77

12 XXXXXX St.

City, State, 00000

 

Message 5 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Removing a judgement that should have never been filed - HELP!

I guess this post isn't as interesting as some others...
 
Message 6 of 27
bl00dymary
Valued Member

Re: Removing a judgement that should have never been filed - HELP!

Joe, I recently had to deal with a similar issue myself. You should not need to file a vacate, because any judgements become null & void once you filed you BK.  Write a letter (or call) the offending creditor and include (or offer to fax) a copy of your BK discharge papers to prove the dates if needed.  Explain to them that they are in violation of the court ordered stay and face extreme sanctions if you are forced to go to court to have this removed.  Or you can just call the lawyer you used to file the BK, they should be happy to handle it for you and probably won't charge you a thing (save maybe a cut of the sanctions awarded).  You can also send copies of your BK discharge to the CRAs themselves and have them remove the information.


Message Edited by bl00dymary on 08-04-2007 05:11 AM
Message 7 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: first post - judgement shouldn't have been there

Joe,
Go to the General Credit Issues and look at this post from Lost2007 dated 7-31-07.  Was able to get judgement deleted off reports.  So, I decided to try the same thing, faxed over bk paperwork that shows (list of creditors) and discharge paperwork as well a letter I typed very similar to Lost2007 and I sent it over.  I pulled my FiCO reports today, judgment is gone.
 
Send your info to:

EXPERIAN... overnight a copy of the letter yourself to Lee Lundy, 701 Experian Parkway, Allen, Texas 75013 and be sure to include a short note from yourself explaining that you need this updated to your Experian file immediately. Give him your contact info and he'll probably assign a senio r level manager on your case to call you and verify the info. WARNING: when you get a call back, be prepared... the manager that called me was condescending, rude and somewhat childish, but I held my ground and finally got my stuff updated.  972-390-3838  I played around on the email because one of the guys on the forum said that's what he did until he got a good one.  Try lee.lundy@experian.com.  I got a call from them yesterday.

TRANUNION... fax the letter into Dave Wolf at (312) 466-8707 and again include your contact info and he'll probably assign someone to work with you, too. They have been extremely helpful to me and unlike Experian, these are genuinely nice people.  (I also tried 610-546-4606)

EQUIFAX... this gets a little tricky, depending on where you live. I had to call CSC Credit in Texas and they handled my concerns pesonally. Fax the letter into Ms. Bea Hilton at (281) 878-5088 and again, be sure to send your call back info. And just like TransUnion, I found some of the Equifax/CSC people to be absolutely wonderful.  Or Email:  dinah.watson@equifax.com, you will have to scan your document and send it to her in an email.

 

Got this info from CreditHawk and added other numbers as I got more info.  There is a page posted here with fax numbers and actual voice numbers for the CRA's.  Do a search on Ex numbers, EQ numbers, TU numbers..  I addressed the letters to the name of the person Credithawk suggested or I addressed it to Priority Processing.

I would also suggest posting in the General Credit Issues as that forum seems to get a lot of responses to inquiries regarding overall credit. If its the wrong post, someone would probably move it to the right forum.  Okay?   Good luck.

 

 
 
 
 


Message Edited by myhearts07 on 08-04-2007 12:14 PM
Message 8 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Removing a judgement that should have never been filed - HELP!



bl00dymary wrote:
Joe, I recently had to deal with a similar issue myself. You should not need to file a vacate, because any judgements become null & void once you filed you BK.  Write a letter (or call) the offending creditor and include (or offer to fax) a copy of your BK discharge papers to prove the dates if needed.  Explain to them that they are in violation of the court ordered stay and face extreme sanctions if you are forced to go to court to have this removed.  Or you can just call the lawyer you used to file the BK, they should be happy to handle it for you and probably won't charge you a thing (save maybe a cut of the sanctions awarded).  You can also send copies of your BK discharge to the CRAs themselves and have them remove the information.


Message Edited by bl00dymary on 08-04-2007 05:11 AM

I tried going to my lawyer - but he's worthless and doesn't get that I want it REMOVED from credit, not just marked satisfied.  When I went to him before, all that resulted was they marked it satisfied.  I can try again though.
Message 9 of 27
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Removing a judgement that should have never been filed - HELP!

Joe,
 
What's going on with this?  I sent a letter to the civil court where the judgement was placed and I called a few weeks later to see if they received my letter and I was told that they can't do anything and that I would have to file a motion with the court to have it removed.  I didn't go that far because I am trying to refi and having that judgment off would make my credit picture look a little better than it was.
 
Did you try to mail or fax copies of your paperwork to the bureaus as I suggested? 
Message 10 of 27
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