I paid a judgement in 2006 and it still shows on my report as not satisfied. I bought a house recently and had to show the mortgage finance people the letters of proof this was paid but not shown paid on all 3 reports. I am now trying to buy a car (lease) and this negative non paid judgement is preventing me from getting a car. What do I do? I have all supporting documentation showing this has been paid since 2006. I even have a dismissal form a seal from the court and lawyer showing dismissed and paid in full. Please advise. I really need to take care of this. Thanks.
You need to send a dispute letter to each of the CRAs that is reporting it. You basically say in the letter what you said here -- this is reporting incorrectly, the judgment has been satisfied. Enclose copies of the dismissal from the court.
If you send CRAs proof that a J was paid, you cement the paid J onto your report. Whereas if they keep reporting it incorrectly you can use various technical failures on their part vis-a-vis responding to procedural requests as leverage to get them to drop the derog entirely. CRAs will routinely claim they verified directly with the court. In fact, except for TU they pretty much don't, relying rather on third-party contractors to gather the data. Which puts them in violation of the FCRA when they tell you falsely that they verified directly with the court.
