How To Remove Civil Claim Judgment From a Credit Report

Having a civil claim judgment on your credit reports can negatively impact your finances and overall credit scores for many years. But thank god that you can remove civil claim judgment from your credit report with a variety of actions that you can take to help you remove these judgments from your credit report.

These judgments have a huge impact on your credit reports and shouldn’t be taken lightly. They easily make it a lot harder for you to obtain a loan than it already is.

Luckily, you can remove civil claim judgments from your credit reports before their expected end date.

Consider this blog a guide that will explain everything you need to know about these civil claim judgments, including how they affect your credit score, how to possibly remove them, and more. However, we will still advise you to seek professional help if you need to be 100% sure about your final decision.

What is a Civil Judgment? 

A civil judgment is a court order resulting from a lawsuit or even an erstwhile eviction. If you fail to repay a lender or a creditor, a credit card company, a financial organization, or any other lender, they can take you to court and file a case against you suing you for the money you owe.

If the court sides with your creditor, the judge will issue a court judgment against your name. The judgment will contain the details required for the repayment method/s. The judgment eventually also appears on credit records for up to seven years

Remember, these civil judgments also appear on your credit reports collected by the credit bureaus to show your credit history for future loans to the creditors. It will be hurting for you as a consumer. Although back in 2017, a ruling was passed for the three major credit bureaus not to include these judgments on credit reports to make credit reports with a higher level of accuracy.

Nevertheless, even with this 2017 ruling, some civil judgments manage to make their way to appear on your credit reports. These judgments on your credit report will significantly limit financial opportunities. Many consumers attempt to remove the civil judgments from their credit reports to counter the negative financial consequences.

How Does A Civil Claim Judgment Affect Credit Score?

Civil judgments are one of the most damaging things in your credit history. They are nothing like collections, where two private parties are involved and always handle the dispute privately, whereas a judgment is a court order against your name that is mandatory to repay a debt.

These judgments can be the result of situations like you fail to pay for child support, alimony, and small civil claim lawsuits.

A civil judgment claim on your credit reports will lower your credit score extensively. The potential creditor/s will have second thoughts to approve your loan application. They can’t have trust in you regarding repayment of the debt. 

If you can get a new loan or credit card approved, expect the approval to have the highest APR rates in the market.

Types of Civil Judgment

There are four types of civil judgments that are made following a lawsuit between a creditor and a borrower.

–          Unsatisfied Judgments: Unsatisfied judgments mean an unsettled debt with your lender/creditor. 

–          Satisfied Judgments: Satisfied judgments mean you have settled the debt with your lender/creditor.

–          Vacated Judgments: Vacated judgments mean that the court has dismissed the judgment and no longer has significance over your credit history.

–          Renewed Judgments: Renewed judgments are unsatisfied judgments that have completed their time and are reissued by the court again. 

4 Ways To Remove Civil Claim Judgment From Credit Report

There are four different methods you can attempt to remove civil claim judgments from your credit report. You should try these methods in the given order; they are ranked based on effectiveness.

1. Seek Court Validation

In this case, the information provided on your credit report should be verifiable and accurate.

If your creditor fails to verify a negative item, they are required to remove this negative item from your credit reports, according to FCRA – Fair Credit Reporting Act.

To request validation, you have to send a letter with your personal information and the case number to the court that made the judgment. Request the court to validate if your judgment occurred.

Also, if the court fails to respond, validate the case, or claims that it cannot validate it, then request a respected credit bureau to remove the judgment from your credit history.

2. File an Appeal

Another effective way to remove your civil judgment is to file an appeal to vacate the judgment from your credit report. Vacated judgment means the court dismisses the judgment. In other words, the judgment will cease to exist legally. It no longer affects your credit score and won’t appear in public records.

In an appeal, the judgment gets reevaluated whether to vacate or uphold the judgment. In the majority of the cases, the lender fails to show up to the appeal hearing; this leads to a default judgment that favors the defendant.

The appeal’s success will change the judgment’s status to a vacated judgment and stop affecting you financially. 

However, keep in mind that a default judgment can favor the creditor only if you fail to appear before the court’s hearing.

3. File Appeal With The Credit Bureaus

If filing an appeal fails to work with the court, try to file a dispute with the primary three credit bureaus. Again, you are required to provide accurate information on the credit reports. If you see any inaccuracies in the credit history, request the credit reporting bureau to remove the incorrect piece of information altogether.

You should obtain copies of all three credit reports and scan them for inaccuracies, illegitimate items, or clerical errors. It would help if you looked out for mistakes such as:

–          Inaccurate dates

–          Misspellings

–          Wrong dollar amounts

If any of these clerical errors are on your credit report, immediately send a dispute letter to the credit bureau through verified mail. The letter you send should contain detail of the errors and the changes you want the credit bureau to make.

If the bureau fails to validate the information within 30 days; they must remove it from your credit report.

4. Pay The Debt, If You Have Any 

The best way is to pay the civil judgment off if none of those mentioned earlier methods works and wait for it to be cleared from your credit report. Some states’ creditors easily remove these judgments when they get you satisfied. 

The judgments can linger up to seven years to clear in other cases. Thus, repaying the judgment as soon as possible changes it into a satisfied judgment—a wise action to attract potential lenders for future loans. 

Conclusion 

Seven years sound like a long period to walk around with a civil judgment messing up your credit reports. You will not be dealing with the effects of one mistake forever. When the civil claim judgment falls off your credit report, the damage to your credit history will fade away with time.

Perhaps you should consider this judgment an important lesson to learn instead of dwelling on its negatives on your credit report, even if you already have learned. To a greater degree, hard lessons leave the biggest impressions on one, and they remain in our subconscious long after the evidence is gone. 

Imagine living life with a civil claim judgment for seven straight years; you will do everything to avoid dealing with the same issue for another seven years. It is easy to remove civil claim judgment from credit reports, but why get involved in the hassle when you can avoid it by practicing good credit habits.