Tracey
“Dear Steve,
Went to court to fight a small claims suit and lost, now it’s on my credit report. The company that sued me went out of business 3 months after the court case.
We are trying to buy a house, and I would like to resolve this, but can’t contact the creditor. I have tried calling, phone number is out of order, and have no response from any letters i have sent.
Would attempts to validate that judgment with the credit bureaus be advisable? Or would the credit bureaus validate thru the courts?
Tracey”
Dear Tracey,
You have a few avenues to explore to remedy this situation.
You could contact the attorney that represented the company and ask for advice on satisfying the claim. You could also contact the clerk of the court where the case was and ask for advice about how to satisfy the claim.
Just because the company went out of business does not invalidate the claim and asking the credit bureaus to revalidate the item will just result in it remaining on your credit report since it appears to have been properly filed and recorded against you. All the credit bureaus need to do is check the court records and there it will be.
The best way to clear this claim is going to be to pay it but the tough part is who to pay to get it recorded as satisfied. As a last resort you could write to the judge that handled the case and ask for some advice on how to pay the claim and record the satisfaction.
A long shot would be for you to hire a lawyer to see if you have any legal grounds to vacate the judgment. Since the company is out of business then nobody is around to fight it and if your attorney could present a good legal argument, you’d win.
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The judgment does not have to be paid. File a motion to challenge the judgment and no one will show up you will automatically win and the judgment will be dismissed because there is no one to defend a closed company.