Court Judgement Removal
Can court judgments be removed?
The short answer is yes, we can help you remove a court judgement from your file.
Let’s examine this in detail:
When you owe a credit provider money and don’t pay it, they can try to recover it by going to court. A court judgment is a decision made by the court that you owe money to the credit provider. The judgment allows the credit provider between 12 and 15 years to recover the debt from you.
If you continue to delay payment of the debt, the amount you owe increases every day with interest.
Your credit file automatically records the negative result of a court hearing via a published public record, however only civil court judgments are reported to the credit bureaus.
A court judgement will remain on your credit file for five years from the date of the judgment, even if you have repaid the relevant debt.
When you apply for credit somewhere else, other credit providers see that you have a default and may be reluctant to extend credit to you. That’s why it’s so important to understand what’s on your credit file.
This is a complex process and steps to remove it usually vary from case to case.
In a straightforward scenario, we start by first reviewing the court documents. We then contact the credit provider’s solicitor. The solicitor will usually require the debt to paid if it is still outstanding. Once that’s done, we draft legal documents for the solicitor to agree that the judgement can be removed. This negotiation part is complex and success depends on the willingness of the solicitor to cooperate.
Once that’s agreed we file documents with the court agreeing to remove (set aside) the judgment orders. Once the court agrees, we notify the credit reporting bureaus and have the judgment removed from your credit files.
It usually takes 3 to 6 weeks to remove a court judgment from a credit file. This is based on the debtor’s solicitor cooperating.
Getting professional assistance to remove a court judgment can sometimes cost up to $1,500 per case. Some companies charge significantly less, but this can mean that the work is being done by less experienced, or junior staff. Our fees are probably higher than others because this is our specialisation.
Before the industry was regulated in 2021, many small unscrupulous operators saw this as a way of making quick money. Many of our clients came to us after wasting money (and time) with other credit repair companies who promised the world but delivered nothing.
If the judgement is the only negative listing on your file, then yes, the file will be clean and your credit score will improve.
However, rather than just hope for the best, Visage will do a complete review of the files from all three credit reporting bureaus before starting your work. This means you know exactly what it will cost before any work takes place. That way, you’ll get the results you paid for.