Hello Wise and Tenacious Credit Fixers, I am very much still in the reading stage, so I don't mean to bombard you with questions that have been asked a million times, but in the interest of giving an introduction and hello, here's my story: We got into tight water, financially, about 4 years ago. Medical bills, crazy student loans, lack of experience. Fast forward to today: everything is paid off and we are hoping to buy a house whenever possible. Mortgage broker pulled husband's report and advised to 1. open a credit card. 2. Pay down existing line of credit. 3. Prove that a judgment has been satisfied. (We have the proof). I am hesitant to send along the proof and essentially verify the judgment myself. I would like to see it come off the report. I have no idea if we were treated according to our legal rights during the suit, but they were nasty enough to take our money, pre-judgment, and then not reduce the claim. There was probably a lot we coulda/shoulda done, but we had no idea how to fight it and had a newborn at the time. At this point, I am feeling optimistic about getting DH's report to be more positive, but I am unclear how long I want to hold up the process, as we need to start house-shopping sooner than later. (We are in an extremely cramped, extremely stressful domestic relationship with my mother, to put it politely.) Do you think it's worth it to try to get rid of that judgment, or just take the broker's advice and get it changed to satisfied so we can be approved for a mortgage now? Here's what I gleaned from the report: EF: 660, EXP: 644, TU: 649 Problems: Public Record: Judgment/includes docket # and contact phone #/unsatisfied (incorrect) Negative trade lines: Cap1/paid/closed at credit grantor's request JCP/Paid/canceled by credit grantor Car loan/paid/current/was 60 days past due 1 positive trade line/high balance/ going to pay it down Thank you for any words of encouragement or perspective! I have spent far too many years with my head in the sand, and it's time to get some fresh air! More than anything, I'm grateful to have found this community because you all give me hope.
That's what I get for writing at 1 am...I should have said everything problematic has been paid. We still have a balance on a shared cc and I have my student loans. Only DH's credit is being considered for the mortgage, and all his "negative issues" have been paid.
Judgements are verified differently than other trade lines. Essentially, the Credit Reporting Agencies contract with people to go to the court house records and search for the judgement. Have you went to the court house to verify that the judgement is reporting at the court house as being satisfied? (If the attorney is unscrupulous enough to take your money pre-court, and not reduce the amount that they are claiming to be owed in court, they'd be unscrupulous enough to either not update the court that it's been satisfied, or try to keep the money for themselves.) With the proof in-hand the mortgage broker should be able to approve it, based on the evidence which conflicts with the credit reporting agencies. So see if you can provide the proof to the mortgage broker for them to manually verify for themselves the fact that it was taken care of. So, if it was me, I would: (a) go to the court house, pull up the docket #, verify that it's showing as satisfied. (Get a copy showing how it's reporting at the court house.) (b) if showing as satisfied, send a dispute of the judgement to all three of the credit reporting agencies. (c) if showing as not satisfied, I would send a letter to the attorney saying if they don't update it accurately, I will sue them under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, since they are the ultimate data furnisher, since it's their obligation to update the court house on the settlement status; to give a little bit of traction to your letter, append CC: (state) Bar Association, and American Bar Association to the bottom of the letter. (At the same time, I would still go through step (b), the reason is to make the violation of the FCRA by the attorney one that you can take action against them to the tune of $100 to $1,000 per credit reporting agency if it's improperly verified. Now, you can get them on the hook for up to $300 to $3,000 per dispute. ) (d) Repeat as needed. - On repeats of step (b), the credit reporting agency will possibly argue "previously investigated" as a reason to rule the dispute frivolous, this is when I would (a) if it was on file at the court house as of the date of the dispute as being satisfied, I would send a notice of intent to sue, with a copy of a draft suit, for failing to perform an adequate investigation, attaching as "EXHIBIT A" the proof from the court that it was reporting as SATISFIED at the time that it was disputed. (b) if it was not on file at the court house as of the date of the dispute as being satisfied, I would send a notice of intent to sue, with a copy of the draft suit, for failing to perform an adequate investigation, attaching as "EXHIBIT A" the letter that you sent to the attorney, the state Bar Association, and the American Bar Association. (I would name the attorney, and the client, as co-defendants with the Credit Reporting Agencies, and make sure that you send the ITS & suit to all parties.)
Thanks, jam! This is the first time I have felt able to take control of this situation and also the first time I felt like I could start to understand how all the credit bureau stuff works. I really can't thank you enough for your encouragement and clarity. Sounds like a really logical plan you laid out there. I am sure that the courts have updated their record as being satisfied, because when I called the courthouse (court clerk?) she said they couldn't send anything or report anything, but it *did* say satisfied, and to contact the attorneys who represented the case. I did, they somewhat reluctantly mailed me a piece of paper that said we satisfied the judgement. I think I still need to go down to the courthouse and get all the information I can, at least so I can have the best grip on who says what. If the CRAs reply saying the judgment is verified when they haven't really checked it, and I send them an intent to sue, with proof of satisfaction attached, will they most likely change the info to SATISFIED and leave it on, or is there still a chance they might remove it completely? After that, will it just be stuck there? I think my first baby step is to get old addys removed, though, because the judgement is on a previous address. From what I've read, breaking up the contact info/address paper trail can really help get them to remove it (is that right?). Good news- we opened a store card today, per our broker's suggestion, so we are on the road to having a new positive tradeline. I am pulling my reports tomorrow to verify that my tradelines are all positive (I *think* so), and then adding my husband as an authorized user. Feeling so much more capable today than two days ago! Thank you all.
Well, they may report it to satisfied, but if that is what the mortgager needs it to report as, its better than unsatisfied. Then once you get in, you can consider other options.
Right, and if satisfied is as good as it gets, well, at this point it won't be holding us back. So not worth losing sleep over. Yeah! This is so doable! And...I only have one negative on my report (BIG surprise) so once we get our balances a little lower, I'll be adding DH as an authorized user to a couple things. Wohooo!
A search online reveals that the judgment has not been entered as satisfied. At least the attorneys sent me proof that we had finished paying. I still need to go to the courthouse where this was entered to get a hard copy of the judgment. I don't believe my husband was ever served with the judgment. They only served the garnishment to his employer, which doesn't count, I think. This probably doesn't matter though... Except that there are two discrepancies between the Wage Execution Order and the cover sheet that the court marshal sent to his employer: 1. The execution says $3,832.03, but on the order, the total comes to $3892.03. 2. The Marshal then adds a.) Interest Fee: $574.80 and b.) Costs: 5.71, making the total $4,412.54. That's a 15% post-judgment interest rate, added by the Marshal (isn't on the form filled out by the attorney). I shared the exact numbers in case I was missing something obvious. Do we have any recourse at all if this is wrong? Is this the Court Marshal's fault? I happened to find this:Ballou v. Law Offices Howard Lee Schiff, PC , 304 Conn. 348 (2012). *Almost* the same issue, in which the plaintiff was garnished and the debt collector added the post-judgment interest itself. Court ruled in plaintiff's favor. In my case, I only see where the Marshal added the interest. But why would he add it without being told to?? Gah! I can hardly delete our addresses without getting nervous! This is intense. Should I just wait on this? Does anyone have any idea if it's too late or how long I still have (Judgment 9/09, garnishment processed 4/10)? Yikes! I'm trying to search forums for help but I haven't found much that resembles this issue. Thank you for taking a look.
meh- let me change 1 thing- judgment *does* say satisfied, but it does not have the info in the "judgment satisfied on" box. So at least that part is cleared up.
Quick Update: If anyone out there notices that their writ of execution doesn't match the judgment, find out what the marshal's fees are. In our state, not only do they charge fees for filing the execution, but they also get a 15% "commission" which is added to the judgment amount. They may well not even label it correctly. A quick search for marshal abuse yielded an article about a marshal in the area making 7 figures recently. I guess I'm in the wrong business, except for the whole seizing property by threat of force thing. :/
