judgments

[xapooh]

there was a judgment filed against me in 2003. the account sent it to a collection agency and it was filed in my chapter 7 in 2005. As of Friday the judgment was placed as a public record. What recourse do I have?

[HHM]

When you say the Judgement was placed as public records, I assume you're talking about your Credit Report.

First, Judgments are not discharged in BK, sure, the underlying debt (depending on what it is, is discharged), but a Judgment is a defacto lien on all your personal and real property, liens are NOT automatically discharged in BK.

Second, regardless of your BK, the Judgment can be reported on your credit report. It happened, its there.

So to answer your question, what recourse do you have...Probably none. (except to attempt to overturn the judgment or reopen your BK and get it expunged in some manner, assuming its a type of judgment that could be expunged in BK).

Sorry of the bad news.

[xapooh]

judgment

Thanks for the response, however my attorney called me back after I posted. He was saying that it was illegal to place the judgment on the credit report after the fact. So I called the company that sued me and they claim they had nothing to do with it. This is what they told me & I'm not sure how true it is. The credit bureaus go into each states public records and make changes. Is that true & could it have happened because I purchased a new car?

[HHM]

I generally don't like disagreeing with attorney's, but BK attorney's tend to only have a passing knowledge of credit reporting law (they know more than most attorneys, but because credit reporting has nothing to do with the bottom line of most BK attorney's, they don't really stay on top of it).

The bottom line about credit reporting, is that any true and accurate statement regarding your financial history, can be reported on your credit report, and a Civil Judgement against you is one of those things than can and will be reported, regardless of when you got it (except it can only stay on your credit report for 7 years, or up to the statute of limitations on judgements).

The real question is whether the judgement is still valid, if its "completely" invalid, i.e. can never legally be collected on, than it should be removed from the credit report.