I have an unsatisified judgement that is over two years old that I'd like to take care of once and for all. I was served and screwed up by trying to make payment arrangements with the OC before the court date instead of going through their attorney. I sent them a good faith payment of 1/4 of the balance due ($250) and a request to make payments in exchange for them dropping the suit, about a month before the hearing. Well the OC happily cashed my check, but still sent their atty to court (for the full amount) and won by default because I didn't show up. I know, I know, I messed up by assuming they accepted the terms by cashing the check : ( Anyway, I went to the courthouse yesterday and viewed the case file. The judgement is listed for the FULL amount $1087.06 + $50.00 court costs. The address listed on the judgement is my current physcial address and is spelled wrong, but its close enough that I don't think a judge would throw it out for how/where it was served. I would like to contact the OC's attorney and offer to pay the balance if they are willing to sign a joint motion to vacate. I don't think the OC ever informed them that I paid $250, but I do have a copy of the check. Could that be used as grounds for vacating the judgement? What are my chances of having them agree to this or do they HAVE to go through the OC for approval? P.S. The OC is a radiology practice, not sure if that matters.
You probably should have filed a timely answer with the court stating your payment effort and the amount you paid them and presented proof of the payment. Maybe that would have gotten some mileage for you and maybe not. But I tend to think it would not have hurt you any. However, that's probably not going to help you much now. I'd tend to think you might be better off getting the court record and check it out for possible court errors that might enable you to file motion to vacate void judgment.
Void on what grounds? The wrong spelling of my current physical address or the wrong $ amount listed on the judgement? My gut says the latter, because they went in there asking for the original amount of $1086 instead of $887. The clerk gave me the motion to vacte form and explained how to fill it out. Another thought was to pay the original creditor, file a regular motion to vacate on the ground of the wrong $ amount, and pray that the attorney doesn't show. If that is just stupid, tell me. Lisa
There are at least 22 reasons why a judgment can be null and void upon it's face. I have my doubts that such an argument would get the judgment vacated. Maybe an attorney could give you an answer to that question better than I. You could try that but such motions usually get denied. Your case just might be different. But again, Motion to Vacate Void Judgment is entirely different than a simple Motion to Vacate. One is begging the judge to do it and the other is telling him he has no choice. Another thought was to pay the original creditor, file a regular motion to vacate on the ground of the wrong $ amount, and pray that the attorney doesn't show.[/quote]That don't strike me as being quite the proper approach. While I may not know the proper approach that one just don't sound right to me. What are you anyway, some kind of a lawyer or something?????(LOL) Never mind!!!! Of course it isn't stupid.
Bill, thanks for your thoughtful responses. I'm thinking it might be in my best interest to hire an attorney to clean up the mess I've made with this judgement. Again, thanks!
Thats not a bad idea at all. In fact, if you are not willing to spend an awful lot of time doing legal research and learning how to do it yourself or you just don't want to do all of that then an attorney is the absolute best answer. There is one little problem involved with attorneys however and that is that they are not trained to think outside of their "box" and the very few who understand that thinking outside the box is the best way to win cases so those few are extremely hard to find and usually extremely expensive. They are the F. Lee Baileys and the Johnny Cochrans of the legal industry. Usually they will only take very high profile cases that are likely to add greatly to their fame and fortune. Since the vast majority of attorneys are not Johnny Cochrans nor F. Lee Baileys you just about have to educated them before they understand what it is you need done and how to do it. That is most unfortunate but thats the way I have always found it to be. In order to be able to educate them you have to do at least some homework or find someone willing to do the majority of it for you. It really isn't all that hard to figure out what if anything is wrong with a judgment that might give rise to cause of action which can lead to it's being void. I look over a lot of judgments as I have the time to do it for folks and I use a checklist that I have made up consisting of 22 different reasons why a judgment might be null and void. All together there are about 10 or so pages if I were to type them all up which I have never yet done despite repeated threats to do so. I keep threatening to do it but I guess I'm waiting to see if I can find me one of those round tuits. Those are extemely difficult to come by most of the time. (LOL) Especially since I can't make any bucks for doing it for people since I'm not an attorney.
