I live in Utah, and all of the following happened in Utah; I have a defaulted judgment against me by Capital One, filed 11/29/2007 for $1601.00. The result of this judgment was wage garnishment, which payed the debt of $1601.00 plus legal fees and interest over a year or so. I received a letter from Capital One upon completion of the wage garnishments, saying that they were satisfied with what I had payed, and that the account had been satisfied. The plaintiff's (Capital One) attorney apparently never bothered to file the "Certificate of Satisfaction" with the courts. So I have a judgment on my credit report that has never been marked "satisfied" per the courts, even though I have payed it off and have a letter from the plaintiff's legal department saying they are satisfied. Will this judgment that has NOT been marked as "satisfied" still fall off my credit report after the 7 year period (which is less then 1 year away), or will it stick around forever? Should I file a dispute with the credit agencies and SEND THEM a copy of the letter from Capital One saying it is satisfied? If I bring a copy of the letter to the courts, will that be enough for them to mark it as "satisfied" in their records? Should I just hang onto my letter from Capital One, and ignore it until the end of this year when the 7 years is up? Simply having the letter from Capital One showing it has been payed helps when talking to banks / lenders, but I would really like to make sure that this judgment will fall off my credit report, and will not somehow be re-activated incorrectly in the future. I have been in the process of fixing my credit over the last couple years, this is the last negative item on my report at this point, I am floating right around a 700 on a good day right now, from what used to be 540ish before I began this process. Thanks in advance! James L.
Re: Capital One default judgment, wages garnished, never marked "Satisfied" with cour Sounds like the perfect scenario for a dispute since they are reporting erroneous information. I would NOT send them a document substantiating a payment at this point since it would lessen your chance of a deletion. Cap1 is TERRIBLE to deal with and very aggressive, as you've discovered. I assume since the got judgment the first go'round, you didn't have legal representation?
Re: Capital One default judgment, wages garnished, never marked "Satisfied" with cour Technically I probably could have put up a fight over the whole judgment thing when it initially happened, because I was never served the papers at an address I actually lived at, and so I was never aware of the judgment until a year or two later when my employer suddenly got notice of an attempt to garnish my wages. So I never went to court on this, it was defaulted to Capital One. I didn't want to put up a big fight, so I bent over and took it, payed my debts through wage garnishment, as the debt itself was legit. They garnished me for a year roughly for the actual debt I owed, then came back a year later saying they needed another period of garnishments for legal fees and interest, which once again a bent over and took it, because I just wanted this done and behind me. After the second period of garnishments, and after hounding them for ANY documentation saying it was satisfied, they finally sent me a letter saying it was satisfied. But the Court's have not been updated to show satisfied as far as I know. The credit reporting agencies are still showing it without any kind of "payed" or "satisfied" status, a full year after I finally received the letter from them about it being satisfied. If I dispute it, but the courts still are not showing that Capital One has filed a "Certificate of satisfaction on judgment" with them, won't it simply come back as verified?
Re: Capital One default judgment, wages garnished, never marked "Satisfied" with cour I would dispute the account. Judgments are verified through the court, not the plaintiff or their attorney. However, I would send a letter to both C1 and their attorney advising them that it is being reported as UNSATISFIED, and demanding that it be reported correctly. When the CRA verifies it with the court, I would have no choice but to sue the CRA, the attorney and C1 for violating the FCRA.
Re: Capital One default judgment, wages garnished, never marked "Satisfied" with cour I would send via CMRRR or Fax to C1 & the attorney. When l know both received it, I would dispute it with the CRA. A satisfied judgment is as bad as an unsatisfied one, just like a paid collection is as bad as an unpaid one. By creating an FCRA suit at up to $1,000 per trade line / dispute, you are giving them incentive to not only update, but remove it to keep from being liable for how it's reporting.
Re: Capital One default judgment, wages garnished, never marked "Satisfied" with cour I am still a little confused here... You are saying to send a letter to C1 / attorney demanding that it be filed correctly as satisfied, and as soon as they receive it, file a dispute for the reason that it SHOULD be reported as satisfied? I guess I am not understanding why this would be removed in this instance, it either is or isn't satisfied, where is the incentive to actually remove it in this scenario? Or am I just disputing it for any OTHER reason I can think of, in the hopes they will simply delete it? Still trying to wrap my head around all this...
Re: Capital One default judgment, wages garnished, never marked "Satisfied" with cour Another tidbit of information, I did attempt to dispute this through the CRA's when I very first completed the garnishments, a year and a half ago or so, when I noticed it was never filed as satisfied by Cap1. The reason at the time was that it was "incorrectly being reported as un satisfied, even though it has been satisfied" in my dispute I did not include any paperwork, but mentioned I have wage garnishment receipts for the full amount, and that it was incorrectly being reported as un-satisfied. The dispute came back as judgment verified, as a judgment that was un satisfied, no change on my report whatsoever.
Re: Capital One default judgment, wages garnished, never marked "Satisfied" with cour Ok, emphasis, this is just what I would do (and why) not providing legal advice. 1) Send a letter to C1 and their attorney. "Case #, is showing on my credit reports as not being satisfied. You are required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to ensure that you are providing 100% complete, accurate, and verifiable information. You have a duty to ensure that this information is being reported correctly by the court." 2) Once they receive said letter via CMRRR, or facsimile. Send the CRAs that are reporting it as UNSATISFIED a dispute that it is in fact SATISFIED - DON'T SEND THEM THE LETTER! 3) When the CRA reports that it is VERIFIED and if it is still showing UNSATISFIED. You prepare a suit against (1) the OC, (2) the Attorney, (3) the CRA, for violating the FCRA. Each tradeline that is verified incorrectly is up to $1,000.00 in DAMAGES. So, if they were reporting it incorrectly on all three CRAs, after the first dispute, you are looking at between $300-$3,000.00 in DAMAGES... If you do a second dispute, (it will be responded with a "previously verified" response), to which you resend demanding the redispute, this time providing the copy of the letter, and demanding under CUSHMAN V. TRANSUNION that they do a re-dispute based on the unreliability of the data furnsisher. If it's reverified as UNSATISFIED, you are looking at another $300-$3,000.00 in DAMAGES. Keep disputing, adding in a duty under JOHNSON V. MBNA to CONCLUSIVELY VERIFY the information. Again, if it's responded with a "previously verified" step up the veracity of the letter, until they redispute. If it's reverified as UNSATISFIED, you are looking at another $300-$3,000.00 in DAMAGES. Now, the goal is to get the damages up to $1,500-15,000.00 where you have considerable sledgehammer to wallop them with if they don't want to play ball and delete the judgement by any means necessary.
Re: Capital One default judgment, wages garnished, never marked "Satisfied" with cour When you say; "You prepare a suit against (1) the OC, (2) the Attorney, (3) the CRA, for violating the FCRA. Each tradeline that is verified incorrectly is up to $1,000.00 in DAMAGES." are you saying get the services of an actual attorney to sue them, or is this just meaning send them a letter SAYING I will sue them, essentially just blowing smoke until they drop it? I am pretty green when it comes to dealing with and understanding this stuff so I appreciate the explanations! 7 years since the judgment was filed is coming up this November. Will a judgment that has never been marked satisfied still fall off my credit report after 7 years? If it will, I am not sure it is worth it to me to lawyer up (and spend the money associated) and go down kicking and screaming when it will just die a natural death in half a year or so. Thoughts?
Re: Capital One default judgment, wages garnished, never marked "Satisfied" with cour Well, what I would do is draft the suit myself and use the drafted suit. Although I know that not everyone can churn out a suit faster than they can say law suit. I try to play by the same rules that they have to, even though I don't have to. So I try to avoid 'blowing smoke', 'blowing smoke' also walks close to the line of legality.
