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Judgment Removal
What Is A Judgment?
When you owe
creditor money and are unable to pay the creditor, the creditor
must take you to court before they can levy your bank accounts
or garnish your wages. Typically the creditor will sue you in
Conciliation Court or in District Court. When a lawsuit is
initiated against you, you should be served with a Summons and
Complaint. If you do not respond within a set period of time or
appear at the hearing set for your case, a default judgment will
be issued against you. The creditor can then take this judgment
and pursue garnishments or levies. To stop these actions, the
judgment must either be satisfied or discharged in a bankruptcy.
Even if these steps are taken the judgment can still continue to
cause you difficulties. To avoid the continued negative
financial consequences these judgments can create, the judgment
will need to be either released or removed.
Why Should You Have A Judgment Removed?
When a person
files a bankruptcy and they have a creditor who has obtained a
judgment against them, the debt underlying the judgment is
discharged through the bankruptcy. However, the judgment itself
will remain. No creditor can collect upon the judgment, but the
judgment will still continue to exist on the county record. The
judgment will still be reported to credit bureaus as unreleased.
In addition, if a person were to attempt to sell an asset such
as a home, the judgment will interfere with the sale of the
property. Oftentimes, a title company will refuse to clear the
title for a home when the owner has a judgment against them.
Can A Judgment Be Removed?
- Was the debt discharged though the
bankruptcy?
Make sure that
the debt in question was actually discharged through the
bankruptcy. A debt must have been included in the bankruptcy for
it to have been discharge. Sometimes debts are not discharged
through a bankruptcy. This most often happens when a creditor
objects to the discharge of their debt. Make sure that there
were no objections to the discharge of that debt. In addition,
certain types of debt can not be discharged through a
bankruptcy. For example, back child support can not be
discharged through a bankruptcy. If a judgment were to stem from
this type of debt, the judgment can not be removed.
If you were in a
Chapter 13, you can not receive a discharge until your plan has
been completed. A judgment can not be removed if a discharge has
not been issued. You will have to wait until your plan is
completed before you will be able to remove any judgments issued
against you.
- Was the debt properly scheduled in the bankruptcy
petition?
Make sure that
the creditor was properly listed in the bankruptcy. If the
creditor was not listed and the debt existed before the case was
filed, the case will need to be reopened and the creditor will
need to be added.
- Was the Judgment entered before the
Bankruptcy was filed?
If the judgment
was entered before the case was filed, a judgment must be
removed via the judgment removal process. If it was entered
after the case was filed, the judgment should be removed by the
creditor. A judgment entered after a bankruptcy case was filed
on a debt which existed prior to when the case was filed, should
be handled in a different way. Contact your attorney to handle
this situation. It should be the creditor’s responsibility to
remove a judgment in these circumstances.
Removing a
judgment can be a tedious and frustrating undertaking. If you
find that you need assistance in removing a judgment, we can
help.
Please call us
at 651-628-9929.
Office Hours:
M-Th 8:30 a.m. –
9 p.m.
Fri 8:30 a.m. –
8 p.m.
Sat 9:00 a.m. –
3 p.m.
Additional
charges apply.
Please note:
This Document is to be used for information purposes only. The
information in this document should not be interpreted as legal
advice.
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