Judgments Don't Belong On Your Credit Reports

I am of the firm belief that most derogatory items that are on your credit reports don't belong on there.  You see, if you dispute an item, the credit reporting agencies are required to verify the item.  I wrote in a post quite a while back that verification is only hearsay unless it is accompanied by validation or proof of claim, which would be the documentation.  I'm not just pulling this stuff out of my ear. No, there is case law to back up what I'm saying.

Also, verification according to Black's Law Dictionary is Sworn Testimony.  This testimony can be in a deposition, on the witness stand, or an affidavit, sworn under penalty of perjury and under oath, and notarized. Who can testify?  Only someone with first hand knowledge. Only someone who has the documentation to support the testimony and the testimony that supports the documentation.  This is how it works. One without the other is hearsay and according to the courts, it's incompetent and inadmissible.

Now back to credit bureaus claiming something is verified. Have you disputed something and they said it was verified?  Did they provide any documentation?  Did they send you the sworn affidavit testifying to the accuracy?  Hmmm, I'm guessing for everyone that has disputed with the bureaus the answers are Yes, No, and No again!

Have you disputed a judgment and you know it's not accurate?  The amounts are not always accurate. The dates they report are not accurate, usually.  But bigger than those things, is the fact that they come back claiming "Verified" when there are only 3 entities that can verify according to Black's Law Dictionary and case law directly from quite a number of courts. You can verify it - and surprisingly many people actually unintentionally do that when they dispute a judgment. The plaintiff can verify it. And the court/judge has the capability to verify it but that is against the law for them to communicate with the bureaus regarding a specific consumer/case.  In fact, Equifax got slammed a little over a year ago in Chakejian v. Equifax and the court said they cannot claim the court or any government agency furnished information or verified information pertaining to a public record.

The bureaus don't get their information from the courts and plaintiff's don't furnish public record information nor do they verify it with the bureaus. What credit bureaus do is hire a 3rd party "vendor" to check the courts' public records and they furnish it and they claim to verify it. Wait a minute!  Do you see the words "3rd party?" Now remember what the courts and Black's Law Dictionary said about verification?  A 3rd party can't legally claim to verify anything because they lack 1st hand knowledge. They're not even qualified to be furnishing the information!

So, now you know why I'm saying that judgments don't belong on your credit reports.  If you have a default judgment, that is considered a "Void Judgment" because  the court lacked jurisdiction.  If you were sued by a 3rd party collector, they lacked and will always lack Personal Jurisdiction over you. No jurisdiction, no valid judgment! 

Of course, if you fought the lawsuit and didn't fight it properly, they will have a judgment against you because you didn't challenge jurisdiction properly and you didn't word things properly in your response and/or testimony in the case.  If you didn't challenge jurisdiction, you gave them jurisdiction and the courts generally are biased and favor the plaintiff.  You have to say the right things and word things properly and challenge properly and effectively in order to win.

It's the same thing when disputing with the bureaus.  You can fight the judgment and dispute and challenge the judgment with the bureaus, but they are liars, cheats, lawbreakers, and are biased in favor of the companies that pay them.  Judgments should come off easily because they cannot truly be verified. But if the language is not correct, its a 50/50 shot.

There are things you can do in preparation for disputing and I've talked about that on other posts.  These things will give you a little more leverage and help you get them removed.  But if you want someone with over 30 years of experience, who knows the exact verbiage that has given me a 100% success rate of removing the judgments from credit reports, contact me.  I can help you get them off.  I can help remove your judgments whether they are paid or not. Usually after doing some prep work, they come  off with the first dispute. Occasionally the bureaus push back a bit and we have another go at it but as of the date of writing this article, the success rate is 100%.

I want to help you remove these judgments from your credit reports. If you're running out of time to remove these or have been told pay a judgment showing on your credit reports in order to get a car or mortgage or a place to live, or a job, or a promotion, I know how to get them off your reports quicker than most companies, and quicker than disputing it on your own.  The verbiage I use is effective. It is proprietary. It works.

Call or email me today so I can help you get these off your reports and on with your life.  7 years is too long to suffer because the bureaus prefer to be thugs to consumers than to aid them with accurate, verified reports.  Fighting for 6 - 12 months or longer to get the bureaus to remove them when you need to close escrow in 45 days is too long. Let me help.  It's what I'm good at, what I'm passionate about, and I want you to be able to get the things you need that these judgments on your reports are preventing you from attaining.

My phone number is 951-801-2828 and my email address is futurefico@gmail.com. Contact me right away to allow me to help you start getting your life back.

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

My 3 R's For Disputing 3rd Party Debt Collections

Although I have several articles on this blog dealing with how to fight back against debt collectors, I still get a lot of emails and calls asking for assistance with collections whether it is how to demand validation, how to follow up, is what they got validation, etc.  I don't have time to write letters for everyone that calls and emails me for help.  I can't do that as it wouldn't be fair to my clients that hire me to help.  But, for those of you DIYers, I'll try to answer some questions here and give guidance to help you have more success.

In the credit repair world, we all used to want clients with a bunch of collections to remove.  They were always the easiest derogatory item to address and see success on. But times have changed.  Collection "accounts" are not always easy to remove anymore.  Quite the opposite. These companies have become obstinate, stubborn, still liars, but just defiant really.  They don't validate yet they refuse to remove their slander from reports as quickly as they should.  Some just flat out ignore you or refuse to remove unless you sic the big dogs on them or launch a lawsuit against them.  So I understand the frustration.  Hopefully the following information will help you get even better results.

Let's discuss my 3 R's you need to ALWAYS do with these thugs.  This means you do them with the first correspondence you get from them (Dunning Letter), every response you get from them when you have done a bureau dispute, and every response you get from validation demands and follow up letters you send to them.

1.  RESPOND

You absolutely ALWAYS need to respond to them.  If it's a 30 day initial period in which you can dispute their claim then do it within 30 days. Tell them you are exercising your right to dispute their alleged claim and are demanding validation.  If it is a response from a bureau dispute that says something to the effect of  "We received your dispute from a CRA and have investigated and our records are accurate and blah, blah, blah - we're marking it as disputed" you need to respond. 

If it is in response to a demand for validation and they do not tell you that they are removing it and closing the file, you need to respond. If it is a response to your follow up letter or your response letter, you need to respond. YOU ALWAYS NEED TO RESPOND! If it is a letter claiming that they can't determine the nature of your dispute or that it is frivolous, you need to respond.

2. REJECT

You always need to reject their claim that they validated or verified something.  You always need to reject that their records are accurate. You need to tell them that they failed to send what you requested which means they failed to validate.

Some generic letter saying they investigated and their records are accurate is not validation nor anything close to validation.  It is an unsubstantiated and reckless claim that amounts only to hearsay. They are liars. Are you going to take their word for it without any proof?  I sure wouldn't.

Sending a long detailed medical bill from the original medical facility is not validation. It is a list of services and charges from someone other than them.  That needs to be accompanied by a contract between you and the collection company with your signature and their representative's signature on it.  If they include the admitting form with your signature saying you'll be responsible, well, that was between you and the medical facility, not you and the collection company.

Even if you checked the box that they could share your information and that they might forward it to a collection company, unless the company that is trying to collect is specifically named in the original contract, you are not liable to them.  You have the right to choose who you decide to do business with. It's contract law. Without a contract showing you agreed to do business specifically with that company, they have nothing and you owe them nothing.  Reject that claim!

Sending old billing statements from a credit card company is the same thing. Its not validation. Where is the recorded assignment from the original creditor to them?  How much did they pay for your information? Notice I did not say your debt.  They did NOT purchase any debt. They purchased your information and it usually comes on an excel spreadsheet accompanied by a few of the final billing statements around the time the original account was charged off.  They are missing a big piece of the documentation though.  Where is the contract showing that you agreed to do business with them specifically?  Reject that claim!  Without a valid, bilateral contract (2 signatures, 1 from each party), they do not have a valid claim and they don't have validation.

Whatever a 3rd party collector sends you, no matter if it's a whole stack of stuff, it is NOT validation.  They MUST be able to produce a contract between their collection company and you. That is the vital document that establishes a claim and seals validation. They don't have it! REJECT, REJECT, REJECT THEIR CLAIM.

3. REFUSE

Every contact they make with you telling you that you owe something is an offer to contract with you. Refuse to contract with them.  Tell them you do not do business with collection companies and you don't pay companies that you don't owe. You're not going to start now and you refuse to contract with them.  

Why would you agree to pay someone that you don't owe and that can't prove they have any valid business agreement in place with you? I wouldn't.  Refuse their demand, refuse to contract with them. Again, everything is contract law.  In fact, when they claim they have a valid contract because they purchased the account with all rights of assignment and interest, you need to reject that immediately and throw 73 AmJur 2nd, sections 90 and 93 in their face.  This is Supreme Court case law!  

73 AmJur 2nd, Sections 90 and 93 state that they cannot substitute onto a contract unless they have an interest to protect.  That means that they have to be clearly and specifically named on the original contract to have an interest to protect.  Further, it states that they are a "Stranger to the transaction" and a "mere volunteer."  It is saying that you don't owe them.  They do not qualify for subrogation, which is substitution, under the Doctrine of Subrogation.  They are not qualified.  Don't go and agree to pay them anything. Instead, be very clear and Refuse to Contract with them.

3rd party collectors have no valid claim against you.  They have no contract with you. They cannot truly validate their claim. They have no interest to protect. They didn't buy any debt from any company, they only bought account information about you without your knowledge and without your consent and definitely without any business agreement in place requested by you.  That is the only way that they can substitute onto a contract they have no interest to protect, is by you requesting their assistance to pay off the alleged debt and you would then agree to be responsible to them. CONTRACT LAW!  It is what you have protecting you.

So, always respond, always reject their claims of owing them something and false claims of validation/verification, and always refuse to contract with them.  

If you are tired of dealing with these liars, thieves, scum sucking, extortionists called 3rd party collectors and debt buyers and are tired of the back and forth fight you have to stay on top of, I would love to assist you in the fight.  My partner and I have been at this successfully for 50 years combined.  In fact, this month I am celebrating my 30th year in the industry. I love the fight and am passionate about helping others get rid of the bad credit that is holding them back.  I get tons of emails about how my assistance has helped people get jobs, buy homes, cars, and start over.  I would love the opportunity to help you too!

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

How To Write Bureau Dispute Letters - Part 2

I am very late at getting out this post and I am truly sorry.  I have been swamped with my own clients' letters and real estate duties and just haven't had the time to get to this.  Please accept my apologies for the long delay.

Let's get to the bureau disputes.  We will cover charge off's collections, repo's, foreclosures, settled accounts, accounts included in bankruptcy (IIB), and public records.  One thing that is important for you to know about some derogatory accounts is that some are not worth disputing.  Take charge off's for example.  If they are reporting a $0 balance, I don't bother with them.  I'm telling you that in more cases than not, if you remove them, your score will likely drop.

Accounts with $0 balances, even though derogatory, usually have more positive attributes that affect the score than the negative aspects, so they offset the damage that is being done.  Deleting them removes the good factors and the bad factors but because the good outweighed the bad, your score will drop.  We see this time and time again for clients that are adamant about removing old charge offs and settled accounts with $0 balances.  We warn them, we advise against it, but if they insist, we go after them and when we start seeing them removed, we see the score drop pretty much every time. I personally think that a higher score is more important than a totally pretty credit report.

Collections:  Always negative and I don't care if the balance is $0, I'm going to go after deletions on these.  Typical disputes are as follows:

• (Round 1) I do not have any account with this company, have never heard of them and this needs to be deleted. 
• (Round 2) You told me to contact this company and I have done so. FDCPA 809b requires this to be deleted until they validate.  I have requested validation and they have not produced it. Delete this now.
• (Round 2/3/4...) Please produce the contract used to verify this account because I have none with them and the information you have is inaccurate.
• Please provide the sworn affidavit used to verify and the accompanying documentation as required pursuant to Black's Law Dictionary which defines what "verification" actually is.  ~ then I copy/paste the definition of  "verification" to the letter.

Charge Off's:  This is only for accounts showing a balance, past due or both.  Typical disputes are as follows  - Do not dispute all the errors at one time. Dispute them 1 at a time, round after round:

• (Round 1) The balance (and past due/or past due) on this account is incorrect. It should say $0. I do not owe any monies to this company for this account. Please correct or delete this.
• (Round 1 or subsequent) You are allowing an inaccurate history of this account to be reported.  Please investigate, gather documentation proving accuracy, or delete this from my credit report.
• (Round 1 or subsequent) This company does not have any information to verify as they have reported over and over in the history that they have "No Data (ND)".  As this is unverifiable, FCRA Sect. 611 REQUIRES you to delete this.
• (Round 2 or subsequent) This is not verified. I contacted the furnisher as you told me to do and they have either refused to provide any documentation or they are unable to provide documentation proving the claim or the accuracy.  This remains inaccurate, incomplete and not verified. You are REQUIRED to delete this immediately according to FCRA Sect. 611.

Repos:  Many times you will have a repo auto loan account that has a balance because of a "deficiency" remaining after they sell the car.  I treat these as charge offs and dispute the same way but some times add a little twist.

• (Round 1) You are allowing this company to furnish an incorrect balance.  The balance needs to show $0 because this account was paid in full by the asset protection insurance attached to it. Please correct to $0 or delete this account immediately.
• (Round 1 or subsequent) Please investigate the history reported on this account. It is absolutely inaccurate. Correct or delete this immediately as anything inaccurate about the information they have furnished requires correction or deletion according to FCRA Sect. 611. Take care of this immediately.
• For Repo accounts with a $0 balance I suggest that you send the company a notice to Cease & Desist ALL communications regarding the account. Advise them that furnishing or verifying information with credit bureaus is considered a "communication" according to the courts and a violation of your C&D notice.  For these types of repo accounts, once you have issued your notice to them your dispute should be as follows:
• (Round 1) I do not have any account with this company and they have been issued a notice to Cease and Desist all communications with you.  Please delete this account immediately!

Foreclosures:  Sometimes foreclosure accounts will have a balance.  This is an obvious error. Dispute this as follows:

• (Round 1) This account is inaccurately and erroneously reporting a balance that they know should be $0. Their intentional and willful furnishing of inaccurate information is a violation of FCRA Section 623 and according to FCRA Section 611 you MUST correct or delete this immediately.
• (Round 2) I have contacted this company and requested the proof that they are reporting accurately.  They have failed to provide it within the 30 days the law allows them. This is inaccurate and unverified and you are required to delete this according to the FCRA. I expect you to comply with the law and remove this slander immediately!

Settled Accounts: For all settled accounts that are original creditors (except for repos), leave it alone!  For collections, send them a full Cease and Desist (C&D).  Then follow up with a bureau dispute that says:

• (Round 1) I have no account with this company nor have I ever signed any contract to do business with them. They have neither lent me anything nor have they provided services to me for which I requested.  They are under an order to Cease and Desist and accordingly, this must be removed from my credit report immediately.

IIB Accounts:  Because a bankruptcy obliterates all debt, you no longer have any account with the creditor. It has been eliminated. If you had a bk that was dismissed, no account was in a bankruptcy because according to the courts, a dismissed bk is the same as never ita bk at all. Sometimes they erroneously report a balance as well. Dispute as follows:

• (Round 1) I do not have any account with this company. Please delete this.
• (Round 1) This account claims it was included in a bk. If that were true, which it is not, this would be violating the federal bk stay. Delete this immediately.
• (Round 1) This account is erroneously claiming I owe them money, which I do not. This is an error and according to the FCRA, inaccurate information must be deleted.

Public Records:  Hopefully before you dispute these you have removed any addresses associated with it, especially bankruptcies. Do not send the court clerk or county recorder letter yet.  You may send the FTC staff opinion letter with the first round if you would like.

• Bankruptcy (Round 1):  Your information is inaccurate. I do not recall having a bankruptcy on the dates you are reporting and there are blank fields making your information incomplete as well. The FTC has publicly stated that your public record information is often inaccurate, which is the case in what you are allowing on my credit report.  Delete this immediately!
• Bankruptcy (Round 2): You are big, fat liars!  You claimed that you verified this and told me to contact the furnisher. You claim that the court furnished and verified the information. I did as instructed and they gave me a letter claiming that they neither furnished the information nor verified the information. They are the only ones qualified to make a verification regarding this alleged bankruptcy and they did not verify. You are allowing slander on my credit report.  See the attached letter from the court proving that you are allowing erroneous information on my credit report and are falsely claiming that it is verified. Your butts need to be sued if you do not remove this from my credit report. It is inaccurate, incomplete and NOT VERIFIED! Delete this immediately!

• Tax Liens (Round 1):  I have NEVER had a valid tax lien. Further, according to my state statutes/the IRS (pick one), taxpayer information is confidential and not allowed to be on any taxpayer's credit report. (if you know your state statute, insert it in your dispute). You need to get this crap off my credit report immediately as it is inaccurate and damaging to me and may be actionable for statutory damages, actual damages, and punitive damages. Delete this NOW!
• (Round 2): Please see the attached information from the county recorder which you claim furnished and verified this tax lien.  It proves you are huge liars. How do you get away with this stuff and how on earth do you sleep at night? You should be in jail for causing injury to consumers. This was neither furnished nor verified by the county recorder. Get your false information off of my credit report now!

• Judgments: Even if you have had a judgment, you can demand that they verify it and since they are accusing, the burden of proof lies with them. If you have a default judgment, it is not a valid judgment, it is a "Void" judgment and carries with it the right to challenge it at any time. In order for a judgment to be valid, the case must have at the trial a plaintiff, a defendant, subject matter jurisdiction (which can be challenged at any time) and a competent witness (sworn affidavit by a witness with first-hand information that testifies and produces the accompanying documentation to back up the testimony).
• (Round 1): I am not aware of any judgment against me for $XXXX. I do not believe you are furnishing accurate information and I need you to investigate this and provide the documented proof that your information is 100% correct. Otherwise, please delete this immediately.
• (Round 1):  I do not have a valid judgment against me. You are allowing false information on my credit report. Delete this immediately.
• (Round 2): I have proof that you have lied about verifying this bogus judgment. The only persons qualified to verify it is the court or me, and I can't verify it and they claim they didn't verify it. See the attached from from the court proving that you have lied and that this remains unverified. The FCRA requires that this be deleted until you get proof from the court exclusively that this is mine - which obviously it is not!  Delete your inaccurate, incomplete, and unverified information immediately!

Okay, this should provide you with a really good start to cleaning up your credit report.  I cannot guarantee that any or all of these disputes will work every time because you are relying on two other parties per account to obey the law. Unfortunately, creditors, collectors and credit reporting agencies have notorious reputations for ignoring the law and doing whatever they please.  I do hope that you will see more success using some of these disputes than you have been getting or that most people get using boiler plate disputes.

Please remember never, ever to admit anything to a credit bureau.  It is THEIR JOB to get the proof and it is the furnisher's job to provide you with the proof (which is why I dispute with both the bureaus and creditors/collectors). I never, ever advise sending proof of a paid tax lien, paid judgment, or bankruptcy paperwork to the CRA's. If you do, you are giving them what they need to keep these public record items on your credit report for a full 7 years after that event.

If you decide you don't want to do this on your own, I would love to assist you with your credit repair. Also, if you have trouble removing tax liens or judgments, paid or not, we have an escalated proprietary process that can help.  By law, we are not allowed to guarantee any results, however, we do have a 100% success rate removing them.  We would love to assist you with removing them if you would like us to.

Best wishes for your credit repair venture. You can be successful so don't believe the naysayers that claim ugly credit has to stay on your reports for 7 years or more. That's an ignorant statement and totally untrue. Whether it's accurate or not, the furnisher has the responsibility to prove it and the bureaus have a responsibility to maintain maximum accuracy.  If it can't be proven, a claim of accuracy should not be made by anyone.  Also, you may think it's accurate and you may think you owe monies, but I'm here to tell you that you that you have been deceived.  Your contracts with creditors were never truly valid and no 3rd party collector has a lawful claim against you.

Stand up for your rights.  Fight hard for your credit to be repaired. You are to be congratulated for taking the steps needed to get your life and credit back!

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

How To Make Original Creditors Validate An Alleged Debt

Anyone who has studied the art of credit repair for any length of time knows that when you get attacked by a collection company, you fight back by hitting them with a demand for validation.  But that's for 3rd party collectors, not original creditors. In fact, if you send a letter to an original creditor demanding validation, sometimes you'll get a response from them proclaiming they don't have to validate but as a courtesy, they investigated and they are accurately furnishing information.  They do this to make you give up and go away.

However, there is a way to get them to "validate" without calling it validation and they are required to produce it for you.  Remember a while back, for those of you who have read through my blog posts at least a bit, I explained and defined validation and verification. Validation is the PROOF, the documentation that goes hand in hand with verification.  

So, to be able to have the right to demand the proof that they are accurately reporting, first you must dispute the alleged debt or the account with the credit reporting agencies (CRA's).  This is also compliant with FCRA section 623.  Once you have disputed with the CRA's, they have 30 days to investigate and send you the results of their investigation.  They will send you the results of their investigation and usually at least a partially updated credit report showing that the items disputed have been updated, remains, deleted or verified.

If the results are anything other than deleted, (including "updated" but the problem is still there) this is your open door to make them validate the alleged debt.  Now you can write a letter directly to the creditor saying something similar to the following:

Dear whoever,

I have some concerns about this account and the way you are furnishing the information to the credit bureaus. I don't think the information is accurate. (I'm going to give several different things here that might be an issue you'd bring up).  You say this is charged off but then you claim a balance is still owed to you when we both know that charging off an account puts a $0 balance in your books. The lates you are reporting are not correct.  The history you are reporting is so wack there's no way that it is accurate.  There are all sorts of blank fields on my credit report where you should have reported information. That means the information you have furnished is inaccurate and incomplete and the FCRA says you are required to correct the information or delete it.

When I saw how you were reporting information to the credit bureaus I disputed the accuracy.  Now I have the results of their investigation and it shows that you claim to have verified this account. Since you claim to have verified this account (or updated it for the mere act of putting an "in dispute" comment), I now have the right to have you prove you are furnishing accurate information to my credit reports.

Here is what I am now demanding from you:

Please provide copies of the actual documentation you used to "verify" this account with the credit bureaus.  Here is a list of items I need from you.

Then you start listing items like you would with validation demands from collectors except you don't need proof of assignment or bill of sale from the collection agency. Demand the usual stuff like a certified copy of the original contract, full accounting from origination to present, copies of cancelled checks proving late dates, etc.  Here's some fun stuff to ask them to send you: proof they lent you actual money and where did they get that money from since its against the law to lend money from their assets or their depositors' assets, and its definitely against the law to lend credit. 

Oh, oh, how about insurance?  Now you all know that investors always insure against loss of their assets. Creditors are really just investors.  They are allowed to file a claim against asset loss at 90 days of the customer defaulting on their alleged debt. Yes, that insurance claim results in them receiving a check to cover the balance of the alleged debt they claim is owed. That means that the debt has been paid in full. Let's not forget about tax credits, Oh yes, they file a "profit and loss" claim with the IRS because supposedly they lost money when you defaulted.

How convenient of them to quickly forget that they got paid by insurance on that alleged debt which they never really lent any money or credit for. You funded your own line of credit. I know its hard for a lot of people to comprehend AND accept this because its just not something that they ever teach you. Its something that they don't want you to know.  They don't want you to realize that they are the fraudsters that never lend anything, are never really creditors but merely servicers, insurance fraudsters, tax fraudsters, and lying thieves.

Enough of my ramblings about the enemy. The point is that you can demand that they prove you owe that charged off amount. You can demand that they are accurately reporting late payments and that the history showing on your credit reports is correct. You can demand that they delete the information from the credit reports should they not be able to send you the documentation.  If they don't, well they are violating the FCRA.

I wish I could tell you that you can enforce their compliance, but then I'd be a liar. You can try to enforce it, and you can rat them out to the CFPB and the FTC, and the BBB and your Attorney General, and even sue them. But it all comes down to whether they back down and obey the law or just continue being stubborn, arrogant, and outside of the law. I suggest never giving up. Keep going at them, wear them down, keep calling them out, and yes report them to all of the above agencies.  The squeaky wheel does get the grease and whoever gives up first, loses.  Don't give up! Hang in there and win! 

If you are tired and feeling like giving up or you have collections and charge offs on your credit report and would rather have some help instead of doing it yourself, I understand and would love to help you. Feel free to contact me at the email address listed above, just a little below my picture.

If you have found this blog helpful to you, please consider donating as a sign of your appreciation for information I have freely given to you.  The "Donate" button is on the right side bar.  Thank you for your generosity.

Removing Default Judgments From Credit Reports & Public Records

Have you ever gone and applied for credit or pulled your credit to qualify to buy a car or house and the finance manager or loan officer tells you that you  have to take care of a judgment in order to qualify and you say, "What judgment?"  I hear it quite a bit. This usually happens because you got sued and never were properly served. I see this happening a lot to people who have been sued by 3rd party debt collectors.

If you've read much of my blog, you know that I absolutely loathe debt collectors. These companies are the scum of the earth.  They have no business meddling in your life. They play dirty, violate the law, and should never get a dime from any consumer.  What is really rotten is when they sue you.  They file a lot of lawsuits because they know that most consumers will not fight back and they get default judgments.  If they think you might be a fighter, or they just don't want to take the chance of that, many times they will improperly serve you a summons and complaint or not even serve you at all. If you don't know about the lawsuit, you won't fight it and they'll win by default.

Courts do NOT furnish these judgments, or any judgments for that matter, to your credit reports. They don't verify them with the credit bureaus either when you dispute them.  These are furnished to the bureaus by data diggers. They scour the public records to find new public records and I believe they are paid to furnish them to the credit bureaus.  These data diggers are considered "Vendors" by or to the credit bureaus and they are the ones who both furnish and verify the disputes with the credit bureaus.

This really pisses me off because they are not qualified to do either of these things and when you demand that the bureaus give you the contact information for the person who verified, they lie and give you the court's address and contact info and never expose the true furnisher of the information nor who claims to have verified the information.  I say that they are not qualified because in order to verify something, you have to have first hand knowledge and the full documentation to back it up. They have neither.

But let's talk about how you remove them. Before I explain the following process, let me state that paying off a judgment does not make it come off your credit report. When you are repairing your credit, you will dispute the judgment with the credit bureaus.  You need to give a specific error.  You can say things like, I have never had a valid judgment for $xxx.  Or, I didn't lose any lawsuit on 1/1/01 or whatever date they are reporting.  You need to spin it if it looks sort of accurate.  You can challenge the court location, dates, amounts, plaintiff, missing information, inaccurate information, even the age being obsolete if its too old to even be on a credit report. You must be VERY CAREFUL not to admit anything about the judgment.  Use "I don't recall..." if you have to but don't even hint at admitting to it.

At the same time you are disputing with the bureaus, send a letter off to the court requesting their method of furnishing information and verifying information with the credit bureaus.  Do not get specific. Do not include your social security number. Do not include any case numbers. Do not reference ANY specific case.  You are only inquiring about whether or not they furnish information and verify information with the credit bureaus.  Make sure you include a self addressed stamped envelope so that they can send you a response quickly.

You should have the response from the court back before you even get your bureau responses back. This is most of the time.  Sometimes courts fail to respond.  When this happens, I think that there's a clerk or court employee that is intentionally trying to make it difficult for you to remove your public record items because they believe you deserve it.  I'm just very suspicious of them like that. I like to see the good in people but I've seen so much that I just have a hard time giving them the benefit of the doubt.  Anyhow, hopefully they will answer your inquiry properly so that you will have some good ammunition for your next round of bureau disputes.

Hopefully your bureau disputes will come back showing that the judgment has been deleted.  But if it comes back as "Verified", you will need to do another round.  This time, your dispute will be, you told me to contact the court regarding the verification of this item. Please see the attached letter I received from the court when I did as you told me to do. They had nothing to do with this information and they certainly didn't verify it.  Please either give me the contact information of the liars who claimed to have verified this or delete it.  Make sure you have attached a copy of the letter from the court and you can also include an FTC staff opinion letter that I use and highlight, that states bureaus are allowing inaccurate public record information on credit reports.

This time, your bureau responses should come back showing the judgment deleted.  But, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Bureaus will occasionally claim they can't use the supporting documentation that you sent with your dispute and its still verified.  Even though the correct and lawful response would be that it has been deleted, unfortunately, bureaus are big lawbreakers too.

We are moving on now to the next section. Whether or not you removed your judgment from the credit report it will still be in the public records.  If you are buying or selling property, when they do a Title search, they will find this judgment and underwriting for your mortgage may require that you pay it off as will escrow for sellers to be able to close.  Credit repair does NOT remove the judgments from public records.  But, getting the judgment vacated with the court sure does!

Now, this is good for everyone who hasn't been able to get it off the credit reports.  I also want to reiterate that this is ONLY FOR DEFAULT JUDGMENTS!  Removing a judgment from a public record should cause your next dispute to the bureaus to finally delete it off your credit reports.

DISCLAIMER:  THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVISE!! THIS IS "HOW TO" INFORMATION BASED ON MY OPINIONS, MY EXPERIENCES, RESULTS FROM PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE AND MY KNOWLEDGE GAINED FROM RESEARCH AND PRACTICAL APPLICATION RESULTING IN CONSISTENT SUCCESSES ONLY. I AM NOT CLAIMING TO BE A BAR ATTORNEY. (I refuse to stoop to that level or be insulted to that degree).

You will need to get the judgment vacated at the court level. This means you will need to file a Motion to Vacate and Set Aside the judgment, and Motion to Stay the Execution of the judgment. You will also need an Answer to the lawsuit which will be entered as an attachment to your Motion to Vacate.

Court rules vary from state to state and county to county. Sometimes courts have rules specific to that court.  There are 2 arguments that can be raised to get a judgment vacated.  The first one is the one most often used and pretty much the only one that an attorney would use. It is a Motion to Vacate for Lack of or Improper Service.  What this means is that you weren't served at all or they didn't serve you properly.  They may have served the wrong address. But for whatever reason, you were not timely and properly notified that you were being sued.  There is also an argument to be made that you were in the hospital at that time or out of the state/country, and didn't get served properly.  They may have done what is called "Substituted Service" because they weren't able to serve you personally.

You will need to pull the full case file and buy a copy of everything in that file. You will want to see the Summons and Complaint (sometimes called a Warrant of Debt), the proof of service, any affidavits that were included, and anything else in that file.  You will be using these items and the information they contain, especially in their Complaint, which has "Causes of Action" to form your defense for both your motions and your Answer.

Remember I talked about court rules?  Well, its very common to see a deadline to file a Motion to Vacate within 6 months of discovering that you had a judgment.  So, when you find out about it and you want to use this defense, you will usually need to get your motion filed into the court and served upon that plaintiff within 6 months.

Now the 2nd argument that can be raised to be granted a Motion to Vacate, and again, this is ONLY for DEFAULT judgments, is the court's lack of Jurisdiction. A default judgment is considered a "Void" judgment and it can be challenged AT ANY TIME - There is NO Statute of Limitations to challenge a default judgment.  The court lacks jurisdiction because there are 4 requires items for every case.  A Plaintiff; A Defendant (Whoops, that was missing); Subject Matter; and A Competent Witness.  

When the court grants a default judgment, there was No Defendant. That means the court lacked Personal Jurisdiction.  If when you pull the file you find that the Plaintiff didn't include an affidavit from a "Competent Witness" (one who has first hand knowledge and is qualified to testify - not hearsay!), then the court also had no Subject Matter Jurisdiction.  Also, subject matter jurisdiction can be challenged at any time and the case cannot move forward until the PLAINTIFF establishes, proves it.

Here is the beauty of vacating default judgments, especially when using the argument of the court's lack of jurisdiction. As I stated, default judgments are Void judgments and can be challenged at any time with NO statute of limitations.  What this means is that if you look at the Date of Last Activity for the original account, and had there not been a judgment it would now be outside that Statute of Limitations for debt, once that judgment is vacated, that debt is now considered Time-Barred and they can't come back and sue you again!  While a judgment is active, they can pursue payment until the statute of limitations for judgments expires.

So keep in mind these Statutes of Limitations:

State statute of limitations on debt is based on the Date of Last Activity (when you last made a payment.

State statute of limitations for judgments - based off the date of judgment and runs for usually at least 10 years but it varies by state.

Statute of Limitations for vacating a Default Judgment - ABSOLUTELY NONE!

So the moral of the story here is, be excited for default judgments. If you get sued, even served properly, but are not prepared to fight and doubt you could win (you probably could if you knew how to fight it properly), don't be afraid to get that default judgment.  You have the ability to reopen the case when you are ready. vacate it, and if you can hold off the vultures trying to collect on that judgment until the debt statute of limitations has passed, you can totally get rid of it from the public records as well as your credit reports.  

Oh, PS.  It is much more wise to vacate a judgment than to file a bankruptcy to get out of paying off a judgment.  Filing a BK will add 10 more years of crap credit to your credit reports and they are a pain in the butt to remove. Save those BK filings for emergencies such as one of your strategies for avoiding foreclosure. By the way, if you are facing foreclosure and want to fight, you can contact me for a referral to a friend of mine who is massively successful, its what he does for a living, and just so you know that he knows what he's doing, he's been in his house now without making a payment for over 11 years. 

If you would like someone to help you remove your judgments from your credit reports, I can help you with that. Though it is illegal to guarantee results, my partner and I do use an escalated and proprietary process that generally removes them in approximately 30 days and we have a 100% success rate.  I would love to help you remove your judgments, your tax liens, your collections, etc. and help you raise your scores so you can have that fresh start you so deserve! You can find my contact information on the top right of this blog. Both my email and phone number are there for you to reach out to me.

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Why You Can Remove Liens, Judgments And BK's From Your Credit Report

It is always so frustrating when you are trying to build, re-establish your credit or get financing and you keep getting turned down because your credit doesn't meet the criteria needed.  I think one of the most frustrating things is when you go to buy a house and you find out that you have a judgment on your credit, many times that you had no idea was even there.

Sure, you expect to see that bankruptcy, but sometimes you aren't even aware that you have tax liens and judgments on your credit.  It feels like you're doomed and will never get that loan. Its frustrating because if you spend money on paying them off, you're cutting into the money you need for your down payment and closing costs.  And if its a bankruptcy that's killing your score, you can't even pay to resolve that.

But what if I told you that you can legally remove them?  Would that make a difference?  I hope so because I'm telling you, you really can LEGALLY remove them. In fact, I'll go so far as to say that they are ILLEGALLY being reported on your credit report. The bureaus have  a responsibility and a duty to remove them. But you have to know the game in order to beat them.

I want to be clear that just because you remove them from your credit reports does not mean that they are also deleted from the public records.  The credit bureaus and the county records are two completely separate entities. Your bankruptcy will still be recorded in the public records and you can't remove it from there. Judgments and liens will still be recorded in the public records but those are things you can actually remove from public records as well as your credit reports.  I'm not going into that today.

I've been very, very successful removing these from both the public records and credit reports. This is because my idea of a fun night, is one spent reading laws and case law and researching and developing strategies to tackle these issues successfully.  I'll tell you that it's way faster and a bit easier to remove them from credit reports than public records. 

So today, I'm going to teach you why you can legally get them off your credit reports and why I believe the law is clear that bureaus need to remove them.  If you've read my earlier posts about 3rd party collectors and removing collections, you'll see that its the same laws that affect the public record information that shows up on your credit reports. These same laws are part of what I use to remove them from credit reports.

When you look at your credit report, it tells you the name of the furnisher of the information. That may be a credit card company, auto lender, mortgage lender and sometimes collectors. When you look at the public records, you'll see that they claim it is the bankruptcy court or the superior court or the county recorder. Sometimes it says a magistrate or recorder of deeds. Whatever place it shows, they are saying that that court house or recorder, or whatever, is furnishing the information.

That's a bold faced lie.  Then the bureaus go so far as to claim that they have verified the information when you send them a letter disputing the information. That's an even bigger, fatter lie. Do you actually think that the courts have hired people to furnish details about the hundreds or thousands of cases and about the losing party, to the credit bureaus? Do you think courts and county recorders have time to verify the thousands of disputes bureaus get every day? That's just one issue.

The big issue is, do they have the legal right to furnish or verify information?  Ahh, now that's where we look to the law and that's where we find the answer that the bureaus don't want you to know!  Before we even look at the law though, let's look at the legal definition of "verify" or "verification."  Now, I did a post on this word a while back. Its really important that you understand this definition.  Its part of the, um, I can't think of the word I want but , sort of the strategy of what ties everything together. Let me take a bit of that post from last year and show you here how it ties things together.

Verification according to Black's Law Dictionary is "... averment that the party pleading is ready to establish the truth of what he has set forth." Also, it goes on to say, "The examination of a writing for the purpose of ascertaining its truth; or a certificate or affidavit that it is true." 

The court said "Confirmation of the correctness, truth, or authenticity of a pleading, account, or other paper, by an affidavit, oath, or deposition." McDonald v. Rosengarten, 134 111. 126, 25 N. E. ; and Summerfield v. Phoenix Assur. Co. (C. C-) 65 Fed. 296; and Patterson v. Brooklyn, 6 App. Div. 127, 40 N.Y. Supp. 581.

To break it down into language you can understand, verification is sworn testimony. It can be testimony in a deposition or in court or an affidavit. The only testimony that is admissible is testimony from a witness with First Hand knowledge. A court clerk does not have first hand knowledge nor does the county recorder, nor does anyone at the credit bureaus, nor does Lexis Nexis, the main public records source for the credit bureaus.  If someone verifies but they don't have first hand knowledge, then its not verification, its Hearsay. And hearsay is inadmissible and the court says its incompetent. 

This is a major puzzle piece in figuring out how to go at the bureaus and get your public records removed.  The next major piece is based upon a law that applies to 3rd party collectors.  This has been discussed in a previous post as well. The law I'm referring to is FCRA § 603(o)(5)(A)(i; iii). This law in fact, applies to more than just 3rd party collectors. It applies to every single entity that furnishes information to the credit bureaus.  Here's what this law says:

FCRA § 603 
(o) Excluded communications. A communication is described in this subsection if it is a communication 
(5) with respect to which 
(A) the consumer who is the subject of the communication 
(i) consents orally or in writing to the nature and scope of the communication, before the collection of any information for the purpose of making the communication;
(iii) in the case of consent under clause (i) or (ii) given orally, is provided written confirmation of that consent by the person making the communication, not later than 3 business days after the receipt of the consent by that person;

So, even if the courts or recorder's office was furnishing the information, other than getting a court order to furnish the information, they are not allowed to furnish or verify squat on your credit report without your authorization. If you have one of these public records on your credit, did you give the bk trustee your authorization to furnish information about your bankruptcy? (not that he/she would have the time to do that). Did you authorize Lexis Nexis? The courts? The county recorder's office? Anybody?  Did you authorize anyone to put negative public record information on your credit reports?

Yeah, I doubt you authorized anyone to furnish that information and I doubt there was ever a court order to have it on there either.  Hopefully now you'll believe me, or at the very least, understand why I say that you can legally remove these items from your credit reports and why I believe they are illegally being furnished and verified when you try to get them off.

I'm not one to brag, but I have to say here that I am extremely good at what I do. I'm not saying that I get everything off in one shot, and actually, removing public records is a multi-step process. But, I'm saying that I consistently and successfully remove these items from people's credit reports all the time.  I can't remember when I haven't been able to remove them. The power to do this is in the laws, in the definitions, and in the way you word things, and the way you follow up everything with enforcement. 

Hopefully I've given you enough information that if you choose to pursue the removal of these items on your own, you too will see success.  But, if you want someone to help you that has a proven track record, almost 3 decades of experience, I would like it if you'd get a hold of me. My contact information is up at the top right hand side of this page. 

These days, prospective home buyers have a hard enough time getting qualified for a loan with decent credit, you can imagine the hurdles they must face when the credit report has these types of negative items on it.  I want to help you if this is your situation.  I want to help you if you need to buy a new car. I want to help you if you want to get some new credit cards or you just want to clean up your credit. I love what I do. It is my passion and I'm good at it. 

I love seeing clients' credit reports go from awful to spectacular. I love the fight. I love sparring with collectors, creditors, and bureaus. Most importantly, I love to win.  When I win, its Your win. When I win, your ugly credit report becomes a pretty credit report. That's what I love to do. I love to help consumers have pretty credit reports that allow them to get the loans and credit they need at interest rates that don't choke the life out of you. I love  to help consumers save money on their insurance, their utility deposits, their ability to rent a car, to be able to get that new job or keep the job that scrutinizes their credit.

I love this so much that right now I'm running a special. From now until September 5, 2014 or the next 25 people, whichever comes first, I will go after the removal of a public record for half price.  I would say that I will remove it, but the law does not allow me to promise or guarantee results.  I know what I'm able to do, but I won't break the law in my processes nor in my claims. Bureaus, creditors, and collectors may lie, but I won't. So, again, I will go after the removal of a public record item at half the regular price, for the next 25 people or September 5, 2014, whichever comes first.

Please don't hesitate if you want to save some money on this. I fill up my client rotations quickly.  The sooner you contact me, the sooner we get started and the sooner you can expect to see a prettier credit report! Please call or email me today.

PS: If you are a loan officer, real estate agent, insurance agent or someone who has clients that need my services, anywhere in the country, please contact me. I want your turn downs. I'm willing to earn your business and send you back clients who are able to qualify and get better rates. My services will help you close more deals.  If you are a real estate agent or broker, I offer an airtight non-compete that I believe will put any of your worries about that issue to rest. I'm not looking to act as your clients' real estate agent. I'm looking to get their credit where it needs to be so you can close deals.

PPS:  I also do lunch & learns and workshops for your potential buyers and agents in Southern California. My partner and I come and show how we can help your clients become homeowners and how we can help your office close more deals!  Please contact me today!

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