Judgment, Who Me?

I have a judgement on my credit report I just find out about. The judgement is 7yrs old and I was un aware of it. But when the loan company pulled my credit there it was. I got not notice to appear in court. I tried contacting the company for a settlement offer, but they are no longer in business. In fact all check into cash businesses have been shut down in the entire state of North Carolina.Is there a way for this to be deleted and removed.

Albert

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Hello Albert,

You could call the court to find the name and number of the plaintiff’s attorney who entered the judgment and then make a settlement offer.  The interest having likely accrued at 8% per year would put the actual judgment balance at about 75% higher [yikes!] than it appears.  More bad news is that the statute of limitations for judgments is ten years in North Carolina.  And finally, the FCRA permits a judgment to remain on a credit report for the length of the applicable statute of limitations.  Now for some better news.

The type of judgment that is entered when the defendant fails to appear is a default judgment.  You may check with an NC attorney to see if it’s possible to vacate the default judgment [my guess would be that it’s too late, although some states start the clock based on when you discovered the judgment].  For grins, this is how you vacate a default judgment in California.

A final option, and one I might be more inclined to do, would be to do nothing.  While noted above, the FCRA permits a judgment to remain throughout the ten-year SOL – many times the CRA’s drop them off your report after seven years.  I’m also inclined to suggest this because the original creditor is nowhere to be found. 

One final note is that you have the right to dispute the judgment with the CRA.  The CRAs use contractors to obtain public records information and mistakes are common.

Thanks for the questions and hope this helps.

Paul

This author is not an attorney and this information should not be considered legal advice.  Please consult an attorney for legal advice.