Paid Civil Judgement Showing on Credit As Unpaid

[LA_WOMAN]

Hello,

My teenage daughter was involved in a minor car accident in January. She was insured on the vehicle and our insurance paid for the other party's car to be fixed with no issues.

The woman that my daughter was in the accident with was asking our insurance for an additional $5,000.00 for scrapes on her hand and headaches she suffered after the accident. Our insurance offered much less. As a result, the woman filed suit against us in small claims court.

We were taken to court in June. My daughter (17 at the time) and my husband (name on the car title) were named on the lawsuit. I was not named, though I am "technically" the car owner. I am the main operator on the car.

The judgment was made in the favor of the plaintiff in the amount of $1,500.00 on 06/23/2009. We submitted the judgment paperwork to our insurance. They issued a check to the plaintiff in the amount of $1,600.00 (judgment, plus court costs). The check cleared on 07/07/2009 (per our insurance company) and the judgment has been paid in full.

A few days ago, while checking his credit, my husband noticed that the judgment now appears on his credit report. It is listed as an unpaid judgment. My husband’s credit score has now dropped from the 720s to the 680s due to this.

He has had perfect credit all his life. Never missed any payments on credit cards, mortgages, etc. This is extremely upsetting to him (and, in turn...me).

What is our recourse? This is the first time either of us has ever been in a civil lawsuit. We had absolutely no idea that lawsuits even got reported to our credit. Not to mention, it is showing as unpaid, despite the fact that our insurance paid it.

Ideally, we would like to have this completely off his credit. I understand that a "satisfaction of judgment" can be filed and the judgment can be listed as paid, but it will still severely affect his credit until it drops off in 7-10 years.

Please help!! We would like to see this removed. Is this possible? What can/should we do?

[KeyWestDan]

I don't even understand how medical injury can be filed in small claims. Apparently some states allow it, but typically small claims is limited to specific types of actions. The court has to have subject matter jurisdiction. You should have had an attorney remove it to a real court.

There should have been discovery, expert testimony, etc. Someone can't just claim to have headaches, etc. You also should have notified your insurance company and they should have provided an attorney.

I would have appealed the judgment and knocked it up a step to county or circuit court, or whatever the higher court is called in your state. That way proper discovery could have been done and so forth.

And yes, any judgment, paid or not, is likely to be reported to the credit rating companies. There is nothing you can do about it other than having a note added that it was paid. You can dispute it and have a note added to it, but the notes have no effect on the credit score which is all most people will see.

[Mr. Knowitall]

If no satisfaction of judgment was filed by the plaintiff, go back to court with documentation of payment and move for the entry of a satisfaction of judgment.

A judgment is a public record, so credit reporting agencies can report them.