Pay off Judgments or get a loan?

[Nik2010]

My question for this rainy, dreary Monday.  I have three judgments from capital one on my record from back in the day when I had no idea how important credit really was.  They total a little over 4500.  In an attempt to satisfy these in my journey towards a mortgage, which would be the best course of action: pay them off one at a time; or get a personal loan from my CU for the lump sum (or less if I can negotiate a lesser amount with the attorney), which would, hopefully, be a positive as an open line of credit on my report?

[hdrider07]

Hello.  IMO since they are all with Capital One I would take out the loan to pay them off.  The objective is to get them to vacate the judgments, I would think that you would have more leverage when negotiating the vacating of the judgments if you paid them all off at the same time.  Just my opinion.

[StartingOver10]

It would be great if you could get the judgements vacated by the judgment holder for payment in full. But that is not always possible. If you aren't able to get them vacated, then make sure you get a recorded satisfaction of judgement for each one.

[RobertEG]

The prevailing plaintiff cant vacate a judgment.... only the issuing court can vacate its judgment.

I would check into the current practice of the judgment court, such as by a call to the clerk of the court, and get an idea of the court's policy on vacating judgments based on their ultimate satisfaction.  Some do it, others require a showing of error in the judgment itself.

Being a public record, the reporting of judgments is oft not originated by the prevailing plaintiff.  Do you know who the reporting party is?

How strenuous have efforts been by the prevailing plaintiff to collect on the judgment?  They have the option of going back to the judgment court, showing failure of the defendant to comply, and asking for a writ of execution of the judgment, meaning they can ask for a court order to attach property or garnish wages.  Then your method of repayment will be at the direction of the court.

[Nik2010]

I guess I'll contact the court first.

There have not been any efforts to collect on the Judgment as of yet.  And I got all the plaintiff info from the county dockets website, so I'll start there.

Thanks for the info!