Although a judgment can sound scary, all a judgment really is the legal right for someone to collect money. Usually, a judge will review the legal binding contract you signed with the lender whether it is a cell phone contract, a medical bill or a credit card. The judge will decide if the creditor is legally entitled to repayment. The debt will have to be within your states statute of limitations for a judgment to be granted. If it is outside of the statute, it simply means that the debt is too old to collect on.
Judgments will stay on your credit report for up to 7 years. It is important to understand that even if you should happen to pay your judgment it will still stay on your credit report as a negative item. It will only be changed to show as "satisfied judgment" which is still a negative mark on your credit.
Contrary to popular belief you do not have to wait for the judgment on your credit report to run its course before it can be removed from your credit report. I have found that the best legal way to remove a judgment would be to dispute it on your credit report. You do this by writing a letter to the credit bureaus disputing the accuracy of the reporting on your credit report. The FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) states that the information on your credit report must be reported correctly or it must be removed.
A common tactic that the credit bureaus often use is to simply ignore your dispute letter or respond erroneously. It’s not just as simple as dropping a letter in the mail box anymore. The reason for this is; in an effort for the credit bureaus to keep their costs down, it is often cheaper for them to ignore your request instead of actually doing the investigation! That is why I suggest you hire a professional credit repair company that is familiar with these stall tactics that the credit bureaus use.
I have used Lexington Law Firm in the past with much success. They seem to understand the credit repair process better than anyone else. They have helped to legally remove judgements, bankruptcies, foreclosures, tax liens, garnishments and numerous collections in general from their clients credit reports.
