Greetings, I have a question concerning court judgements on credit reports. About 6 years ago, during divorce proceedings, my wife prematurely stopped paying rent on a lease in my name. I was eventually sued by the landlord/served, and had my lawyer represent me in the case. There was a settlement reached, which I payed long ago, and I have a signed "satisfaction of judgment" document. The judgment shows up on my credit report (amt was ~ $1600, I believe). My question(s): I am trying to improve my score so I can get a lower rate on a mortgage (my fico was 650 last time I checked), and I am wondering if there is anything I can do relative to this judgement that will improve my score. Do I try to get the satisfaction of judgment appended to my file at the CRAs, do I have any chance of getting the judgment removed, or am I just stuck with it until it expires(?) ? Also, how impactual is a judgment like this to your credit score? Is it equivalent to a BK in terms of how a lender views you? Thanks.
i would try disputing it first with the cra's. because of it's age, it may not be verified and then you are ok. A public record of any sort is a negative on your cr, that being said, the fact that this one is over 6yrs old, probably means that it doesn't have a "major effect" on your cr, however, you should expect to see a score increase when it is deleted, especially if you have no other recent negs. I would not send the cra's anything regarding the judgement. the satisfaction of judgement will not have a positive impact on your scores, you want a deletion. Did the ca also file it with the courthouse, or did they give you the satisfaction to file? If the cra's verify it "as is" and the satisfaction has been file, you have the cra on a violation.
