Any ideas or advice on judgment?

[qd]

I have one judgment from 2009 on my record.  It was satisfied in 2009 as well and was released.  I found attorney that originally filed it in Indiana court and have spoken with him.  He will not help with filing anything new in court to vacate the judgment.  He simply informed me that he filed judgment for his client and after I paid, he filed release statement to show court it was paid. 

I did find in Indiana court laws that satisfaction of judgment is reason enough to vacate...or at least that is how it reads to me, but I also found on IN gov site that it stated it is best to get help from attorney to file motion to vacate instead of doing it yourself.

I don't live in IN anymore so I can't just walk in court and fill out forms.  I did contact court and asked for information on taking care of this myself and waiting to hear back.  They had email to court option with questions so I'm hoping that helps.  Otherwise I'll be calling court clerk in a few days to see what info I can get that route.

I have heard people say to dispute judgment with CRA once it has been released.  I have also heard write letter to judge or find correct form and file motion to vacate yourself.  Of course the other thing I've heard a lot is hire an attorney.

Anyone recently had success with having judgment deleted from CRA and what route did you follow?  Trying to decide if I should keep trying to work on this myself or just find an attorney in IN to help.  Thanks for any advice.

[BrandonSS]

Simply file a motion to vacate judgment.  

Advice given to me:

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To have a judgment vacated you'll need to go back to court on a Motion to Vacate.  Keep in mind that in the vast majority of the cases simply satisfying a judgment does not create an obligation for the court to vacate the judgment, though some jurisdictions are different.  That said, many courts will vacate a satisfied judgment understanding the current financial crisis and the effect a judgment on one's credit report may have.  First thing you'd have to do is find out from the court clerk (it pays to be really, really nice to court clerks!) what she has seen the court do regarding judgments and having them vacated.  You can even ask -- since they are public records -- to look at other cases where judgments have been vacated to see how they worded their Motion, copy it and tailor it to your needs.

In the very likely event that they will not accept being satisfied as a reason to vacate your judgment, you'll have to file a Motion to vacate that alleges the court's lack of jurisdiction to eneter the judgment against you in the first place.  Generally this is accomplished by claiming lack of proper service.  The court will send a notice to the judgment creditor and they will be notified of a hearing date.  If they fail to show or show and do not object, the judgment will probably be vacated.  If they object, you really need to show that service was defective.  Where you served when they sued you?  How were you served? 

The best thing is to ask the judgment creditor not to object to having the judgment vacated.

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You can find a form sometimes from the specific court/country online.  I have one from Hamilton County if that happened to be yours as well.  If not, just search and see if you can find one.  My motion worked a few years ago.

Good luck!