How You Can Remove Judgments

Looking to Destroy Your Good Credit...? Have a Judgment Placed Against You
Judgments - otherwise known as public records - are known as the nuclear devices of credit destruction! When you read about how bad credit remains on your credit reports for seven to ten years, the ten year period refers to judgments. A judgment is the worst type of credit information because it conveys the following message to a potential lender or employer:

"I am not a trustworthy person because you blow off creditors. In fact, I am so severely delinquent and uncooperative with my creditors that you are going to have to take me to court for me to repay your money."

While such an assumption may be cruel and undeserving, it is no less true. The bottom line is that a judgment can single handedly destroy an otherwise good credit rating!

Of course, there is usually more to the story. Perhaps the judgment is in total error and ruining your good name without any justification? Or, maybe you had a valid dispute with your landlord over the terms of a lease agreement, but he obtained a judgment just to bully you into paying money you don't legally owe?

Consider this example of a real client who found herself with credit report judgments as related in Credit Revolution by John C. Heath, Esq., Dr. Randy Padawer, and Jayson R. Orvis:

Jane* came from a well-to-do background. At an early age, Jane married a successful businessman and began living the "American Dream" in the suburbs of a big city. Sometime in her mid-thirties, Jane's world came to a screeching halt. Jane's husband, by then a corporate executive in a large company, informed Jane that he was no longer in love with her and that he filed for divorce. As often occurs, Jane's husband hired a skilled attorney and stripped Jane of the majority of their marital possessions, including their home.

Jane was left with nothing other than a hard work ethic and a large amount of consumer debt.

As a result of the divorce, Jane was left in the midst of serious financial trouble. Jane contacted Consumer Credit Counseling Services ("CCCS") a non-profit debt counseling service that attempted to assist Jane with her financial problems. CCCS negotiated with Jane's creditors, who in turn agreed to accept reduced monthly payments from Jane. After a few months of payments, one of Jane's credit card companies held two of her payments and did not apply them to her account. This caused the payments to be late and the credit card company initiated a collection action against Jane in a state court.

As a result of the court action, Jane entered into a settlement with the credit card company where she agreed to pay them the remaining amount of the debt plus interest. Rather than honor the terms of the agreement with Jane, the credit card company, without Jane's knowledge, obtained a judgment against Jane for the remaining amount of the debt plus interest, attorney fees and costs! This judgment was subsequently reported by all three credit bureaus.

Unfortunately lenders and employers often see a judgment and "run in the opposite direction as fast as they can." Having a judgment on your credit report makes it difficult, if not impossible, to obtain new credit. Even if you convince a lender to provide new credit, banks first demand that you satisfy any outstanding judgments with full payment or settlement.

The bottom line is that a judgment - even a Paid Judgment - must be made to disappear from your credit report if you want to get approved for new credit or improve your credit score.

How Did I Get a Judgment...I Don't Remember Going to Court?
Judgments can only be placed against you at the order of a judge following legal proceedings. Courts may place a judgment against you as the result of nearly any type of loan default. Some common types judgments include credit card judgments, deficiency auto loan contracts, medical bills, unpaid rent, broken leases/contracts, judgments from real estate transactions, personal loans, parking and/or court fines, etc.. Some people are surprised to learn that a judgment was filed against them. They may often learn of the judgment for the first time when applying for new credit. To their surprise, they learn that a judgment has been placed on their credit file with the three credit bureaus.

This is likely the result of the court entering a Default Judgment against them. A default judgment is when the creditor asks the judge to automatically award a judgment without hearing the defense from the debtor. State and federal law permit this when the defendant (debtor) fails to appear in court to defend the allegations against him.

Can I Legally Erase a Judgment from my Credit Reports?
Fortunately the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) gives you the right to challenge any negative information on your credit report. Consumers often find that mailing a dispute letter to the credit bureaus resolves questions about the accuracy of a credit report judgment. Often these disputes are resolved in the debtor's favor because the judgment reporting and investigative system is time consuming and prone to frequent errors. Specifically, most credit bureaus investigate consumer disputes by way of automated electronic systems. However, credit report judgments are maintained by court houses around the United States and involve manual verification.

If you have a judgment on your credit, then perhaps you also have experienced the same injustice in the client case study told above. Whatever your situation may be, you should understand that the Federal Government provided remedies for people just like you looking for a way to help resolve disputes relating to your credit report. Some weapons at your disposal include the Fair Credit Reporting Act, Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, and the Fair Credit Billing Act, just to name a few.

These laws prove to be a powerful ally in your quest to remove judgments and other questionable items from your credit report. However, your greatest ally can be a credit repair professional intimately familiar with consumer rights laws and seasoned in the credit repair process.

You may consider hiring an affordable credit correction attorney such as The Lexington Law Firm (6,928 Judgments deleted from July - September 2008).

Help for your credit report judgment may be a simple phone call away!. A credit specialist is available by dialing:
1-888-585-3999
(free case analysis provided by The Lexington Law Firm)

Below is credit report judgment deletion letter from a client of the Lexington Law Firm:

How I Deleted Charge Offs and Improved my Credit Score from Below 500 to 737!

"I just want to share with you my story about how my credit situation. If you are someone struggling with bad credit, then I was walking in your exact same shoes...

And today - if you look behind me - this is the house that I bought.

So, obviously my credit situation has changed.

Basically, while I was in college I ran up my credit cards and acquired a lot of unmanageable debt which destroyed my credit rating.

About a-year-and-a-half ago when I went to try to buy a house, the banks laughed at me and made me feel bad about what happened in college. (They basically implied that I was a deadbeat SCUMBAG even though it really wasn't all my fault).

I knew that I had to fix my credit, but didn't know how to do it myself so I went to Lexington Law.

Now, literally within several months, I was able to purchase a $300,000 new home without any trouble at all obtaining a mortgage.

So intead of going into banks with bad credit and being looked at as a scumbag, the banks were more than willing to help.

In fact, when I applied for my mortgage and the banker ran my credit, he came back and was saying...

"Wow! Sure thing sir. We'd love to help you out."

Lexington Law literally changed my life.

I went from being the person who has bad credit to being the person who is living in what I consider my dream home at age 29.

Some examples of the things that were on my report that are now gone were:
sorts of

charge offs, collections, and I even had judgments listed against me (which I heard is one of the worst things you can have on your credit.)

I had basically every kind of negative listing shy of a bankruptcy.

Lexington Law has raised my credit score at least 237 points.

I just checked my which is now a 737. When I started with Lexington Law, it was below 500!"

I encourage anyone struggling with bad credit to pick up the phone and give Lexington Law a call.

It was super-encouraging to see my credit score improve each month as the negative items were deleted from my credit reports. I thought some of the bad credit was permanent since creditors misled me into believing that delinquent information would stay on my credit report for the next seven years.

However, through their dispute process and "goodwill interventions," Lexington Law proved it is possible to remove any questionable negative item. (it is the same as pleading 'not guilty' in a court of law).

Additionally, the paralegal assigned to my case showed me other credit rebuilding techniques such as:

• How to add up to three years of positive payment history to your credit with your regular phone or utility bills (these are things I pay each month anyway so it was a real "no-brainer)
  
  
• How boost your credit score by optimizing your 'Utilization Ratio' - this involves transferring balances and there is a Right Way and Wrong Way to do this
  
  
• How Lexington Law can erase your damaging credit inquiries (applying for credit puts a small "ding" on your credit. Inquiry Investigation helps you remove these "dings")

Deleting the negative credit items like charge offs and the credit card judgment, combined with the credit rebuilding techniques, rapidly improved my credit score. In fact, in month two my score went up 74 points!

After living with bad credit for so long, it was really encouraging to see that I was making progress in the right direction.

Not only did the attorneys at Lexington Law show me results, they also provided excellent customer service along the way. If you are someone who enjoys that "personal touch", then you may like how Lexington Law assigns a paralegal to your case.

My paralegal (Stephanie) was always available to discuss the status of my case over the phone and email. Even though I didn't expect or ask for it, my attorney would also periodically give me a call to check in.

Here are some strategies Lexington Law used to delete the really stubborn bad credit - such as the credit card judgment:

• Unlimited dispute & delete
• Goodwill interventions
• Escalated information requests
• Debt validation
• Inquiry assist

You can also access you case online anytime you like. (I enjoyed logging in just to see all the deletions!)

If you are struggling with a bad credit score because of negative credit items, then I truly hope that you start repairing your credit today. I know how humiliating bad credit is and I know how easy it is just to 'sweep it under the rug' and pretend it will go away on its own.

I realize that your situation is probably a little different than mine, however, Lexington Law has already deleted questionable charge offs, a credit card judgment, late payments, collection items, and inquiries from my credit report and raised my credit score to a 737!

Here is a shot of my credit score online last month -:

To get starting repairing your credit, call Lexington Law today direct at:
1-888-585-3999 (toll-free)
www.LexingtonLaw.com

Or, if you want a Lexington Law paralegal to call you, click here.