What Can You Do About a Judgment Lien from an Out-of-Business Credit...

What can you do about a judgment lien filed against you by a creditor or debt buyer that is now out of business?

Law firms like Mann, Bracken that have closed down, filed bankruptcy themselves, or otherwise disappeared still appear as judgment creditors on thousands of credit reports.  In many cases, you may have legitimate grounds to challenge these judgments:

• bad service
• insufficient documentation
• incorrect identity

In other cases you may be willing to offer money to settle the outstanding debt so that the judgment will be removed from your credit report.

If the creditor, collection agency, or debt buyer is out of business, however, there is no one  you can call, no one with whom to negotiate.  If you take no action, your credit profile will remain damaged until enough time passes (often years) so that the credit report reference to the judgment goes away.  And your access to credit may still be impacted if that unpaid judgment remains on the public record in the county where you live.  An unpaid judgment on your credit report and in your local county court records will create significant financial problems for you and should not be ignored.

There are possible solutions to this dilemma, but you have to take action. In this video, I explain how I approach the problem of a judgment creditor who has disappeared.

If your credit report contains a reference to a judgment you do not recognize, or one owned by an defunct creditor/debt buyer like by Mann, Bracken, take action and reach out to an experienced bankruptcy and consumer protection lawyer for advice about how to solve this problem.