See Demo
Free Trial
See Demo
Free Trial

Secrets to Removing COURT JUDGMENTS from Credit Reports!

By: Daniel Rosen Last updated: March 21, 2023

If there's a Court Judgment on your Credit Report, there's a good chance it shouldn't be there, and today, I'm gonna teach you how to remove it!

When it comes to Court Judgments, I always get asked the same two questions: "How do they affect Credit Scores?" and "How do I Remove them from Credit Reports?" 

Well, according to the three major Credit Bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion), Court Judgments DON'T appear on Credit Reports, and they DON'T affect Credit Scores.

So you don't have anything to worry about, right? WRONG!

The Bureau's policy of not including Court Judgments is just that, a policy. It's not Law! It could change at any time! So, it's crucial to understand how these Judgments affected Credit Reports in the past, how they still impact us today, and how you can remove them if they appear in the future.

HOW THIS RELATES TO US

For those new to Credit Repair, a Court Judgment is a formal order given by a judge that demands payment of a debt or damages following a lawsuit. 

It happens when you are granted credit or borrow money but fail to repay the lender, leading to legal action being taken against you.

Back when Court Judgments appeared on Credit Reports, their impact would vary based on the circumstances. 

They could drop your Credit Scores by 100 points or more. Paid Judgments would appear on Credit Reports for up to 7 years, and Unpaid Judgments could remain indefinitely if the Judgment was renewed or until the statute of limitations ran out in that State.

Why did the Bureaus stop including them in their Reports? 

In short: to avoid lawsuits. 

Until a few years ago, inaccurate and inconsistent record-keeping between courthouses led to countless disputes because the Judgments did not meet the legal requirements to remain on people's Credit Reports. 

The Fair Credit Reporting Act states if a Court Judgment is listed on a Credit Report, the Credit Bureaus must check it for updates every 90 days to ensure accuracy. And if that record is not checked, the Judgment is supposed to be removed from the Credit Report. 

So, in 2015, to improve the accuracy of public record data collection and reporting, the three Credit Bureaus partnered with more than 30 US State Attorneys General and agreed to The National Consumer Assistance Plan.

Under this plan, the Judgments disappeared from Credit Reports, and the Bureaus stopped dealing with so many disputes. 

The only catch: the policy isn't protected by law. The Bureaus can bring the Judgments back at any time. So, we have to be ready to Remove them.

THE THING TO REMEMBER

Court Judgments are Public Records, which means they have consequences even if they don't appear on Credit Reports. 

Lenders and employers can still use them to decide your financial future. Creditors can garnish your wages and place liens on your property to recover the debt. And negative items stemming from the Judgments, like Late Payments or Collections, can still hurt your Scores.

So remember, if a Judgment doesn't appear on your Credit Report, you still have to deal with the financial impact. 

If a Judgment appears on your Credit Report while the NCAP policy is active, contact the Credit Bureaus and ask why. 

If a Judgment appears on your Credit Report and it's confirmed the policy has changed, it's time to get to work removing it! 

And that's when you can use the Public Records system to your advantage!

WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT

Public Records are different from most negative items that appear on Credit Reports because the courts don't send them to the Bureaus. 

Before the NCAP, the Bureaus bought the records from companies like LexisNexis, which collected them from public databases like PACER

When the Credit Bureaus received the Records from LexisNexis, they often listed the Furnisher of information as the "Recorder of Deeds," the "Clerk of Courts," the "Magistrate," or the "Municipal Court." 

They did not list the actual Furnisher! 

This amounted to false reporting, which directly violated the FCRA and provided a perfect reason to Dispute the Court Judgment.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW

Before the NCAP agreement, this was the proven method for removing Court Judgment from your Credit Report, and it's still the proven method used to Dispute other Public Records like Bankruptcies and Foreclosures.

First, as always, you begin the Credit Repair process by Disputing any incorrect information that appears on the Credit Report. 

If you believe an error was made during the Court Proceedings and have evidence supporting your claim that could Vacate the Judgment, consider contacting an attorney.

If that seems intimidating, don't worry, there's still a proven dispute process you can use to Remove the Court Judgments from Credit Reports. 

HERE'S HOW IT WORKS

STEP 1: Sign up for a PACER account. 

PACER is a public records database that anyone can access for free, and companies like LexisNexis use it to gather our data. 

STEP 2: Contact LexisNexis and request a Consumer Disclosure Report

Thanks to the FCRA, they're required to provide you with a copy for free.

STEP 3: When you have the PACER account records and the LexisNexis Consumer Disclosure Report, compare the information you find. 

Look for inconsistencies and Dispute them with LexisNexis just like you would with a Credit Bureau. They follow the very same rules.

If you can remove the Court Judgment from the LexisNexis Report, your odds of removing it with the Credit Bureaus seriously increase!

STEP 4: Dispute the Court Judgment with the Credit Bureaus. 

Do this just as you would any other item. If the Bureau verifies the information, move on to the next step! 

STEP 5: Send a simple letter to the Clerk of the Court where the Court Judgment was filed. 

There is no need to get into details or specifics. Just say something like: 

"I have a record from your court appearing on my credit report. I've disputed the item with the Credit Bureaus Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion - all of which confirmed the record was verified by you. Please provide the procedure in which you verify records with the credit bureaus." 

Send this letter to the Clerk of the Court with a self-addressed, stamped envelope and your return address to make it easy for them to respond.

The Clerk of the Court will usually respond with a letter explaining (what you already know) they DO NOT report to the Credit Bureaus. 

STEP 6: Make a copy of the letter you received from the Clerk of the Court and send it to the Credit Bureaus along with a demand for deletion. 

It doesn't have to be written word for word. Still, it should be something similar:

"I have previously disputed (INSERT Public Record Name / Reference #) with you, and in response, you verified the item as accurate, stating that you have verified the information with the court. I contacted the court, and their response is enclosed. It is clear they do not report to you or any credit bureau for that matter; therefore, your initial response verifying the item with the court was either an error or a lie. Either way, the reporting requirements do not comply with FCRA § 611 (15 U.S.C. § 1681I), and the information must be deleted immediately." 

The Bureaus know the law and understand they have a potential violation if they don't remove the item. So they will typically respond with a deletion. 

If the Court Judgment is deleted, you'll soon be able to qualify for loans and lines of credit without dealing with the predatory, high-interest rates that keep people with bad credit stuck in the never-ending cycle of debt.

If the Bureaus refuse to delete the Court Judgment, despite your valid reason for removal, it's time to file a complaint with the CFPB because you are entitled to fair and accurate reporting. 

If you'd like templates of these Public Record Dispute Letters, you can download them FREE at CreditRepairCloud.com/Public-Record-Dispute

MY FINAL POINT

Court Judgments may not directly affect Credit Scores at the moment, but they do a lot of indirect damage, and there's no guarantee the Bureaus will keep this policy forever! 

So, avoid Court Judgments whenever possible, but if you can't, don't give up, you can still fight back!

I'll end by saying…

If you still need a Credit Repair Cloud account, check it out. It's the software that most Credit Repair businesses in America run on. Sign up here for a Free Trial!

And if you'd like to change lives and grow your own Credit Repair business, check out our Credit Hero Challenge!

Challenge-Stack-Mockup-FinalIt's an amazing program, and we've got another challenge starting in a few days, so grab your spot right now at CreditHeroChallenge.com!

So take care, Credit Hero!

Keep Changing Lives!

Be sure to subscribe on your favorite platform below!

badge_youtube watch-01 badge_apple (1)-1 badge_spotify (1)-1 badge_google_podcast (1)-1

Topics: Podcast

Transcript

Hey, Credit Heroes. If there is a court judgment on your credit report, there's a very good chance that it shouldn't be there. And today I'm going to teach you how to remove it. So you better stick around. So the big question is this, how can we take our passion for helping people with their credit, and turn it into a successful business without taking loans without spending a fortune by bootstrapping it from nothing? So we can help the most people and still become highly profitable? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answer. My name is Daniel Rosen, and welcome to credit repair business secrets. If this is your first time listening to my podcast, every week, I give credit repair tips and advice on bootstrapping your business from nothing. So be sure to click subscribe now and get ready to start changing lives. 

 

Okay, let's get into this. When it comes to court judgments, I always get asked the very same two questions. How do they affect credit scores? And how do I remove them from credit reports? Well, according to the three major bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion, court judgments don't appear on credit reports, and they don't affect credit scores. So you don't have anything to worry about, right? Wrong. The Bureau's policy of not including court judgments is just that a policy? It's not law, it could change at any time. So it's crucial to understand how these judgments affected credit reports in the past, how they still impact us today, and how you can remove them if they appear in the future. Where does this come from? 

 

Well, for those new to credit repair, a court judgment is a formal order given by a judge that demands payment of a debt or damages following a lawsuit. It happens when you are granted credit or borrow money, but failed to repay the lender, leading to legal action being taken against you back when court judgments appeared on credit reports. Their impact would vary based on circumstances, they could drop your credit scores by 100 points or more paint judgments would appear on credit reports for up to seven years and unpaid judgments could remain indefinitely if the judgment was renewed, or until the statute of limitations ran out in that state. So why did the bureau stop including them in their reports, in short, to avoid lawsuits until a few years ago, inaccurate and inconsistent record-keeping between courthouses led to countless disputes, because the judgments did not meet the legal requirements to remain on people's credit reports? The Fair Credit Reporting Act states that if a court judgment is listed on a credit report, the credit bureaus must check for updates every 90 days to ensure accuracy. And if that record is not checked, the judgment is supposed to be removed from the credit report. So in 2015, to improve the accuracy of public record data collection and reporting, the three credit bureaus partnered with more than 30 US state attorneys general and agreed to the National Consumer Assistance Plan. Under this plan, the judgments disappeared from credit reports, and the Bureau stop dealing with so many disputes. 

 

The only catch the policy isn't protected by law. The Bureau can bring the judgments back at any time, so we have to be ready to remove them. Here's the thing to remember, court judgments are public records, which means that they have consequences, even if they don't appear on your credit reports. Lenders and employers can still use them to decide your financial future, creditors can garnish your wages in place liens on your property to recover the debt. And negative items stemming from the judgments like late payments or collections can still hurt your scores. So remember, even if a judgment doesn't appear on your credit report, you still have to deal with a financial impact if a judgment appears on your credit report, and it's confirmed that the policy has changed. It's time to get work removing it. And that's when you can use the public record system to your advantage. 

 

Here's why this is important. Public records are different than most negative items that appear on credit reports because the courts don't actually send them to the Bureau before the NCA P the Bureau's bought the records from companies like LexisNexis, which collected them from public databases like pacer when the credit bureaus received the records from LexisNexis. They very often listed the furniture of information as the recorder of deeds the clerk of the courts, the magistrate, or the Municipal Court. They did not list the actual furniture Sure, and this amounted to false reporting, which directly violated the FCRA and provided a perfect reason to dispute the court judgment. Here's what you need to know before the nccap agreement. This was the proven method for removing court judgments from your credit report, and it's still the proven method used to dispute other public records, like bankruptcies and foreclosures. First, as always, you begin the credit repair process by disputing any incorrect information that appears on your credit report. If you believe an error was made during the court proceedings, and you'll have evidence supporting your claim that could vacate the judgment, consider contacting an attorney. If that seems intimidating, don't worry, there's still a proven dispute process that you can use to remove the court judgments from credit reports. 

 

Step number one, sign up for a pacer account. Pacer is a public records database that anyone can access for free, and companies like LexisNexis use it to gather our data, I added the Pacer signup link over there in the show notes. 

 

Step number two, contact LexisNexis and request a consumer disclosure report. Thanks to the FCRA they're required to provide you with a copy for free and I added the direct link to the report request site in the show notes. 

 

Step three. When you have the Pacer account records, and the LexisNexis consumer disclosure report, compare the information that you find look for inconsistencies, and dispute them with LexisNexis just like you would with any credit bureau because they follow the very same rules. If you can remove the court judgment from the LexisNexis report your odds of removing it with the credit bureaus seriously increase. 

 

Step number four, dispute the court judgment with the credit bureaus. Do this just as you would any other item. If the bureau verifies the information, then move on to the next step. 

 

Step five, send a simple letter to the clerk of the court where the court judgment was filed. There's no need to get into details or specifics just say something like I have a record from your court appearing on my credit report. I've disputed the item with the credit bureaus, Equifax, Experian, and Transunion, all of which confirm the record was verified by you. Please provide the procedure by which you verify records with the credit bureaus. Send this letter to the clerk of the court with a self-addressed stamped envelope and your return address, making it very easy for them to respond. The clerk of the court will usually respond with a letter explaining what you already know, they do not report to the credit bureaus. 

 

Step six. Make a copy of the letter you receive from the clerk of the court and send it to the credit bureaus along with a demand for deletion. It doesn't have to be written word for word, but still, it should be something similar to this I have previously disputed, and then insert the public record name and the reference number with you. And in response, you verify the item as an accurate statement that you verify the information with the court. I contacted the court and their response is enclosed. It is clear that they do not report to you or any credit bureau for that matter. Therefore your initial response verifying the item with the court was either an error or a lie. Either way, the reporting requirements do not comply with FCRA section 611 15 USC Section 1681 I, and the information must be deleted immediately. The Bureau knows the law and they understand that they have a potential violation if they don't remove the item, so they'll typically respond with a deletion. If the court judgment is deleted, you'll soon be able to qualify for loans and lines of credit without dealing with the predatory high-interest rates that keep people with bad credit stuck in the never-ending cycle of debt. 

 

If the Bureau refuses to delete the court judgment despite your valid reason for removal, then it's time to file a complaint with the CFPB because you are entitled to fair and accurate reporting. If you'd like templates for these public record dispute letters, you can download them for free at creditrepaircloud.com/public-record-dispute. And here's my final point. court judgments may not directly affect credit scores at the moment, but they do a lot of indirect damage. And there is no guarantee that the Bureau will keep this policy forever. So avoid court judgments whenever possible. But if you can't, don't give up you can still fight back. 

 

And just a reminder, this podcast is brought to you by Credit Hero Score. Credit Hero Score is the only credit monitoring service that integrates directly with the credit repair cloud get instant access to your credit reports and scores by signing up for a seven-day trial for only $1 Sign up right now at creditheroscore.com. 

 

And now for my favorite part of the episode. Every week I feature one of our credit heroes inside our credit repair cloud Facebook community so that you can see firsthand what real people are doing as they run and grow their businesses. And today's spotlight is on Aries Phillips Henderson Aries posted in our community celebrating her credit hero journey. And let me tell you, she is on fire. She listed all her recent achievements in software certified basic disputing certification. She's halfway through the masterclass murdering the advanced disputing course. And she's about to start the credit hero challenge. She ended her post by saying, Hey, Daniel, get my plaque ready to hang on the wall. I will areas your progress has been amazing to watch. Keep up that attitude. And I'm sure I'm going to see you on our Millionaire's club wall very soon. 

 

And I'll end by saying if you still need a Credit Repair Cloud account, check it out. It's the software that most credit repair businesses in America run on. Just sign up for a 30-day free trial at creditrepaircloud.com/freetrial. And if you'd like to change lives and grow your credit repair business, check out our Credit Hero Challenge. It's a live experience that has helped tonnes of credit heroes to get certified in disputing and gain confidence as they run their credit repair business on a solid foundation. So they can change a whole lot of lives and make a great living in the process. We're starting the next challenge very soon. So you want to join before the doors close are you gonna have a long wait until the next one? So sign up right now at creditherochallenge.com. 

 

And if you're finding value in the things that I share on this podcast, click below to subscribe and follow. Also, give me a five-star review or share the show and help me to change more lives. If you'd like to read the show notes. They're posted on my blog. If you have a question or comment, drop it down below because I read each and every one of them. I would love to hear from you. And I'll respond as fast as I can. If you want to learn more about boosting credit scores, check out my episode, and delete collections with these four proven tactics. So take care of credit hero and keep changing lives. Hey, everybody, it's Daniel again. And really quick, I'd like to invite you to join what I believe is the best thing we have ever created inside the credit repair cloud community. And it is a challenge that we call the Credit Hero Challenge if you're just planning out your business, or you're just getting started, and you dream of having a successful business of your own. So you can quit your nine-to-five and fire your boss and have financial freedom or so you can add another revenue stream to your existing business. If that's your dream, you need to get into this challenge. We created this challenge to help you to create and launch your very own credit repair business to build a proper foundation for a really successful business. This challenge is going to help you to understand the strategy, the tactics, and all the things you need to be successful at credit repair. It really is the greatest thing we have ever built, and it will change your life. So I recommend you do it right now. Stop everything pause this audio go online and go to creditherochallenge.com That's creditherochallenge.com and join the next challenge. And there's a challenge that starts in just a few days. So go get started right now at creditherochallenge.com



New call-to-action
New call-to-action

Be the first to know! Get instant notifications for new articles.