How do I find out about mystery public record?

[tonsers]

Here I am again... still working on my parent's credit reports! There is a public record on my mom's EQ report (not on the other 2). The information is extremely limited:

Legal Item filed on Nov 01, 2004
Court of law Not Reported
Case number 497xxxxxx (removed by me)
Date filed Nov 01, 2004
Status Not Reported
Status date Not Reported
Date reported Not Reported
Date complete Not Reported
Date verified Not Reported
Date paid Not Reported
Amount $899
Liability Not Reported
Asset Not Reported
Exempt Not Reported
Plaintiff Not Reported
Defendant Not Reported
Account holder Not Reported
Type of business Not Reported
Description Not Reported

My mom has no idea what this is all about... any ideas on how I begin to research this?

Thanks in advance!
tonsers

[Anonymous]

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tonsers wrote:
any ideas on how I begin to research this?

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County courthouse. Some states have court records online. Missouri does I know.

[haulingthescoreup]

Is this collection of nothing on her myFICO report, or on her full EQ report, bought from EQ? Often the full reports will have more than what's on myFICO, TrueCredit, etc.

I agree, that's quite a stumper, especially when the courthouse isn't listed!

[Anonymous]

I would say dispute it...for all you know, it's not even hers.

[tonsers]

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@haulingthescoreup wrote:
Is this collection of nothing on her myFICO report, or on her full EQ report, bought from EQ? Often the full reports will have more than what's on myFICO, TrueCredit, etc.

I agree, that's quite a stumper, especially when the courthouse isn't listed!

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I purchased all three reports through myFICO today. Maybe I should pull the EQ and see if there is more info. I checked out the record number - based on what I could find in her county - it doesn't seem to fit. I guess it must be from one of those other counties!

Thanks for your help!

[tonsers]

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@Anonymous wrote:
I would say dispute it...for all you know, it's not even hers.

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That's what she is thinking too - she thought that she would have remembered a judgement against her! Thanks!

[braznyc]

I would still go the county clerks office and check the public records for judgments. There are plenty of topics on here where people never got served etc. So that's just a precaution I'd take before disputing.

Judgments are usually the hardest to get removed, even when it's not yours some of these CRA's come back verified. They use companies like Lexis Nexis, which can also goto and purchase her report to see what they have. Basically these folks go to court houses look for public records (judgments, tax liens etc) provide that info to the CRA's and it's on your report etc.