collection letter says a judgement was ordered -

I never received a court summons, nor court documents advising me that a judgment was awarded against me beause I failed to show up in court. I checked my county records online & could pull up no judgement records against me. Is it possible they got a judgement in a county I do not reside in?

The collection letter states that "the court awarded judgment plus interest" but they (First National Collection Bureau, Inc. / midland credit management) will settle for 60% if I pay 2 payments within 60 days. They go on to state "Despite the fact that the court has found you liable for the above balance, our client is willing to extend to you a settlement offer....."

If a judgement was ordered against me that why would now settle for less? My gut feeling is that this is a scare tatic, but I will have to call my county record dept. to be sure no judgement exists.

What do you think? Is this a new scare tatic ploy by junk debt buyers?

Munchkin, Welcome to the fourm. Someone should be along soon that can shed some light on your situation. In the meantime, you can use the search box in the top right corner of the page becuase there have been several members who have dealt with this company.

I would call the attorney's office and request production of the entire pleadings/motions/orders file that they would happen to have on you. In addition, I would also let them know that you will be verifying this with the court of jurisdiction.

If it is true and the state is New York, I won't offer advice, but will tell you what I would do in a situation like this if a client ever came to me in a situation like this.

which state is this?

Correction - I was looking at mortgage judgements online in my county.

How can I verify if a small claims judgement was awarded against me?

I agree with hockeyman. It all sounds suspect to me. If you find that it is all bogus, sue them.

I live in McHenry Country, IL

Munchkin...Check your county court house records...and like everyone above stated if it's a scare tactic...take them to court!

Can't access county court house civil judgement records on-line, so I just paid to see my current credit report today - it shows no judgement awarded to them.

Settlement letter is dated 11-6-07.....is it possible that the judgement has not yet been reported to credit agencies?

If this is a scare tactict then they obviously have crossed the line here - haven't they? Wouldn't they be in violation of FDCP? If so, is it easy to sue without an attorney?

It is against the law for them to misrepresent the debt or make claims that are not true; so if they are lying about their judgment then you do have a case against them. I have a hunch, though, that they filed in a different county.

Granted, they should be suing you in your own county. However, I see that Midland files a LOT of cases in Cook County. Maybe they filed in Cook County and got a default judgment??? That is what I suspect.

Did they put a case number on their letter? Cook county case #'s look like YYYY-M?-XXXXXX, where YYYY is the year they filed, M? is the district they filed in (M1=1st Municipal District/downtown), and XXXXXX is the case #.

Try going to cook county clerk's website @ @@http://198.173.15.34@@ . You can do a docket search by case # or name. See if you pop up at all. If you do, somehow you'll need to argue improper service and/or improper venue.

I tried Cook county and found no judgements.

I also think maybe they filed in the wrong county. Then again MCM has two accounts of mine (2 old credit cards: providian & household bank) and I am currently fighting them in court on the providian account - for this one I was properly served a summons in my county. How could they get the county right on one account & not the other?

I will have to check with Kane county as well because I'm on the border of Kane. Neither Kane or McHenry county has access to this info on the internet - can I do this over the phone or do I need to make a trip to each courthouse?

I breathed a sigh of relief that nothing is on my credit report - but is this a false sense of security? How soon does a civil judgement appear on your credit report? For this account in question all it says on my credit report is "placed for collections".

You would think so, but sometimes these places deal with so many accounts and have so many departments that 'the right hand might not know what the left is doing.' Maybe they aren't putting 2 and 2 together to realize you are the same person with 2 separate accounts...

In any case you will need to make sure it is legit first. Maybe call Midland up or write a letter, demand to know the case # and county, when/how service was made. Then go to the county court they tell you. The clerk will probably only give generic info over the phone. Your best bet would be to drive to the clerk's office, have them look-up the case, and then ask to see the file. Specifically look at the affidavit of service -> who claimed they served you and when/where. From there, if you were never served according to the affidavit, you will need to tell the court that is false. Though I'm not sure exactly how you do that, whether filing some sort of motion or what not??

I'm also not sure how/when it hits the credit report. Cook County, for example, is tied into Lexis Nexus; so judgments pretty much get reported right to the credit bureaus. If your county is not so 'automated', then I'm not sure how the credit bureaus actually find out about a judgment??

Even if they did get a default judgment all you need to do is talk to the judge who heard the case and get the judgment vacated due to improper service.

Demand that the collector send you a copy of the "judgment".

Today I came accross an old piece of mail from this CA dated May 2007 that says the same exact thing - that a judgement was awarded to them.

If they had won a judgement sometime before May 2007 it would be on my credit report - correct? As of yesterday my credit report shows no such judgement. Is it safe to assume this is a scare tactic now?

btw - these letters simply state "The court has found you liable..." but does not mention which court, which county, any docket case number or award date. It goes on to say that when I pay "our client's attorney will file a satisfaction of judgement as well as a release of lien." What does this mean - what do they have a lien against? I thought a lien was placed against something of value - I guess I don't understand.

Who reports a judgement to the credit bureaus and how soon?

Munchkin, only some IL counties offer online searches. This is the link for that judici.com/courts/court_list.jsp .

Otherwise, go to the McHenry Co courthouse and they should have a public access computer to search public records.

hiya--

first, it is a possibility that the second account they have with you was filed in a different county on purpose. Some of these CA's use tactics to try to snap up a quick judgment, and they already know you will fight them because of the first case.

Second, be careful not to assume anything about this situation. It is not definitive proof of anything that there is no judgment showing on your credit file. The only way to prove this is to go to the clerk's office and make sure that there is no judgment against you. Also, they should be able to tell you if there was even a complaint filed against you--this would be considered an ongoing case at that point. This is the important part--you must make sure because you cannot count on the CA to tell you the truth. If you still find no judgment on record, you can then contact the CA directly and demand proof of their claims. Inform them that falsely stating such a thing in order to scare you into paying is very illegal according to the fdcpa.