When the North Carolina civil judgment system works as intended, if you were ordered to pay money, you comply with the court’s order, and satisfy the civil judgment by paying it off. Other times, the civil judgment is successfully appealed, vacated, or set-aside. Paying off a judgment or having it vacated should be the end of the process, but in practice the judgment will often remain on your credit report. This could keep you from obtaining a mortgage, a car loan, or other financing that might help you and your family
A civil judgment is a court order which typically requires one person to pay money to another. If someone has obtained a civil judgment against you in North Carolina, it creates an automatic lien against your property, enables the Sheriff to attempt to seize your assets, and can result in serious harm to your credit score.
If you have recently satisfied or otherwise obtained relief from a judgment, you deserve credit for complying with the court’s order and honoring your legal obligations. Unfortunately, credit reporting agencies such as Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion are quick to report judgments on your credit report, but often fail to update or remove the judgment once satisfied or vacated.
Our firm recently resolved a case for a client who had set-aside a civil judgment after he paid off the amount owed. Unfortunately, the bank and the credit bureaus had not fixed his credit report and he was denied for several loans because of the judgment. Our firm fixed the report and obtained a confidential five-figure settlement for our client.
The consumer protection attorneys at Maginnis Howard are aggressive advocates for consumers whose credit scores have been adversely effected through no fault of their own. We strongly advise that anyone who has recently paid off or otherwise obtained relief from a judgment check their credit reports for free at www.annualcreditreport.com to ensure inaccurate or outdated information is not harming their ability to obtain financing, housing, insurance, or employment.
Attorney Karl Gwaltney handles much of the firm’s Fair Credit Reporting Act litigation and provides free consultations to consumers whose credit scores have been unfairly diminished. We accept such cases on a contingency fee basis, which means you do not have to pay us anything unless we succeed in obtaining fair compensation for your damages. To schedule a free consultation to discuss the specifics of your case, contact us at (919) 526-0450 or visit our contact page to submit a form online.
