I had a judgment...

[FloridaGirl]

entered against me 2 months before I filed for BK. Since I filed for BK, I haven't heard anything else from the company who sued me. They haven't garnished wages, or my bank account, and I haven't gotten any more correspondence from them. Does this mean the BK took care of it? I asked my attorney and he said the BK extinguished the judgment. I'm beginning to wonder if that is true since I haven't heard anything more out of them. It has been 7 months since they won their judgment, so shouldn't I have heard from them by now if they were planning to take action? I was under the impression that if a judgment was entered before you filed BK, special motions had to be filed to get it taken care of. According to my attorney, that isn't true.

Next question....if the BK cancelled out the judgment, can I get the judgment removed from my credit report? My attorney said all I have to do is contact the 3 bureaus and tell them the BK cancelled out the judgment. Will they take it off my credit report?

[LostOne0069]

I don't know about getting it romoved... you can probably get something like the "discharged in bk" notation added to it, but I doubt they remove it completely. This doesn't mean you can't try, of course!


As for a judgement being discharged in bk... yep, if the debt was included in the bk, then the judgement is toast. If you're still worried about it, call the company that got the judgement and ask them what they show as a current status. If they ask, tell them you went through bk and want to ensure that their records are up to date. Problem solved.

[Rover]

Sounds to me like your attorney is giving you good advice.

Since the judgment is no longer valid, the credit reporting agencies should remove it. Be sure to tell them that is what you want done.

At a minimum, you want to make sure that your credit report doesn't indicate that the judgment is still valid.

[poorme]

Judgements are considered Public Records and don't automatically go away. Generally, you or your attny may have to go down to the courthouse where the judgement is filed and demonstrate that the judgement debt was dismissed in bk and they can have the judgement avoided. I believe that's how it works, then you can get it removed from your cr. But, check with your states statures and check with your county court's clerk to confirm.

[FloridaGirl]

Wow! I really appreciate all of your responses. So much time has gone by since I asked about the judgment, and I just figured I was stuck with it on my CR. I will definitely see about having it removed from my CR, or at the very least, having it say that the debt was discahrged in Ch7. Thanks for bringing this thread back to life, queerguy!

[SinkingFast]

Judgements are considered Public Records and don't automatically go away. Generally, you or your attny may have to go down to the courthouse where the judgement is filed and demonstrate that the judgement debt was dismissed in bk and they can have the judgement avoided. I believe that's how it works, then you can get it removed from your cr. But, check with your states statures and check with your county court's clerk to confirm.

Yep that's how it works. The debt is discharged in the BK, but the Judgement is on file at that Court House. That's why it continues to appear in your Credit Report. You may need the assistance of an attny to have the Judgement removed at the Court House. Then you can address wiping it off your Credit Reports.