Public Record Satisfied- Showing as Not Resolved on Report

[Anonymous]

Hello all!

I am hoping someone can help. I have read through the threads and can't seem to find what I am looking for. I apologize if this has already been answered once or twice.

I have been cleaning up my credit report for about a year or so. I have two items under Public Record both have been satisfied but neither are showing that they have been resolved. I am hoping someone can tell me the next step to either get these removed (though from reading the threads, I don't think this is possible) or at least getting these to show as satisfied/resolved.

1. Sued by Monroe Circuit Court in Bloomington, IN by Bloomington Accounts Service. I ended up getting my wages garnished on this one. A portion of my wages came out of three paychecks back in February 2007. Through the garnishment, this is resolved. I have a Paid in Full & Cease Garnishment paper signed by the judge and asking that the plaintiff file release of judgment.

Is there a way to get this judgment removed? Who do I contact? Is there a way to show this as at least settled? If I get this changed to settled, will it stay on report for another 7 years? Please advise. Info below:

• Date Filed: 6/3/03
• Date Resolved: NA
• Status: Civil Claim Judgment
• Status Detail: scheduled to continue until 6/2010 

2. Sued (again) by Monroe Circuit Court in Bloomington, IN. This one shows the Plaintiff as Ford Motor Credit Company. Car was repossessed Feb 2003 (on my birthday- boo!). This one is trickier because it never went to court. I ended up settling with the law firm (Bowman & Heintz) that took over the collections on this. I was told I'd have a release of judgement if I settled. I think I have more information (the letter?) on this at home... hoping at least. This is actually on my report twice- one under public records and one under Credit Items. I have a feeling this shouldn't be on there twice. I really need to know what to do to get this taken care of. Who do I contact? Send GW? Do I handle these as two separate items? Is there a way to get this removed from public record? Please please help!

Under Public Records:

• Date Filed: 1/8/04
• Date Resolved: NA
• Status: Civil Claim Judgment
• Status Detail: scheduled to continue until 1/2011  

Under regular Credit Items:

• Ford Cred
• Status: Paid,Closed/Account charged off
• Date Opened: 9/02
• Reported Since: 9/02
• Date of status: 3/07
• Last Reported: 3/07
• Account History:

30 days as of Jan 2003

Repossession as of Feb 2003

Charge off as of Mar 2007

Your help is MUCH APPRECIATED!!! Thanks in advance.

[Anonymous]

For the first judgment, once you have the release of judgment filed by the plaintiff, that should fix the reporting problem.  If it doesn't, or if it's not quick enough, then you can send in your copy of the "satisfaction" directly to the CRA's yourself.  There are usually some requirements about how quickly the release of judgment has to be filed after the judgment is paid.  The judgment should show "paid" or "settled for less than full balance" or something along those lines depending on how much of the judgment you paid.

For second judgment, it can report as a delinquent OC account, a CA and a judgment.  That's pretty typical when a CA gets a judgment--they just want to hurt you as much as possible.  But since they never got the judgment, that should not show.  However, this is unclear.  The only reason you would get a release of judgment is if there was a judgment in the first place.  Do you have any proof that this was paid prior to your court date?  Sometimes things slip through the cracks and CA's pursue a judgment after they've been paid.  Then the consumer thinks they don't have to show because they already paid, and there's a default judgment for failure to appear.  I would call the court and find out if a judgment actually exists.  Then if you have proof that you paid this before your court date, then you have a strong case for a motion to vacate.

You can GW the OC and the CA.

The only way to get judgments off of your credit reports before the reporting period is up is through a motion to vacate.  Check your state resources (stickied thread) to find out how to go about this.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your help!

Couple questions: 

For the first judgment, the motion from the judge for the plaintiff to file the Release of Judgment within 30 days was back in June 2007. Who would I contact to find out if this was filed and do I ask the CA to get this reported to show on my credit report or the court? This is way past the 30 days so this should show as paid in full on the judgment with Experian. Luckily, out of Equifax and Experian, it's only showing on Experian. I have yet to receive TransUnion.  

For the second, I'm going to call the court to make sure a judgment exits Unfortunately, I paid with my debit card so I don't have a certified check or anything on this. Naive I guess... I can look through my bank statements though to figure out when this was paid and try to figure out if that was before the court date (if there ever even was one). If this works out in my favor, I'll file a motion to vacate.  

I am so unfamiliar with this process, so forgive me if this is a silly question... why would I send a GW letter to the OC and CA? What does that do?

Thanks again for all your help!!

[Anonymous]

Judges don't make motions, they make orders.  So call the court to find out if the plaintiff complied with the judge's order to file the release of judgment within 30 days of the judge's June 2007 order.  The court should handle it if plaintiff's counsel never filed the release, but the court may ask you to send in a letter for the docket so that there's a record on the docket of the plaintiff counsel's failure to comply with the court order.  The release of judgment should still reflect the actual date that you satisfied the judgment, not just the date that the release was filed.  Is the CA the plaintiff on this case? (not sure why you would contact the CA.  If they're the plaintiff, then you can't contact them directly about the court case, you have to go through their counsel)

The reason why you would send a GW to the OC or the CA would be to try to get more favorable reporting of their trade lines on your credit reports.  If they're reporting incorrectly, then you should deal with them directly to dispute what is incorrect.  But it sounds like they're reporting correctly.  The only way to try to get more favorable reporting (deleting the trade line, or deleting some late payments) is to GW.