Can You Remove Liens, Judgments, Or Bankruptcies From Your Credit Report?

THE LAW IS GOOD AND IT IS ON YOUR SIDE, BUT YOU HAVE TO KNOW IT!!

Usually when you want to buy something big, like a house for example, you will have to pull your credit in order to qualify for a mortgage. And this is when it happens: your world comes crashing down because there is a judgment you knew nothing about is on your credit report.

Most likely you know that you had filed for bankruptcy protection at some point, but quite often you don’t know anything about a judgment or a tax lien on your credit report. You may consider paying those liens off. But paying them will not automatically remove them. So what can be done? Are you at a dead end? After all, we are talking liens here.

One thing you have to be aware of: removing those liens from your credit report will still keep those liens in the public records of the county recorder’s office or the court. These are two completely different things. So you have to remove those negative entries from the credit reports of the credit reporting agencies AND from the public records as well.

THE LAW IS GOOD AND IT IS ON YOUR SIDE, BUT YOU HAVE TO KNOW IT!!

When you scrutinize your credit report, it will tell you who supplied the information. For example the credit card company or the car dealer. When you check the public records, it will say that it was the court of the county recorder or registry of deeds.

This is not true. Government entities like courts and county recorder’s offices are NOT in the business of providing your information to the credit reporting agencies. It’s those third party information collectors who sell this information to them. The court don’t have the manpower or the inclination to tell on you. And the best part: the courts don’t have the time to verify all those thousands of disputes the credit reporting agencies have to deal with every single day.

As you now know, every bit of information that ends up with the CRAs has to be verified + validated.

Verification according to Black’s Law Dictionary is “… averment that the party pleading is ready to establish the truth of what he has set forth.” Also, it goes on to say, “The examination of a writing for the purpose of ascertaining its truth; or a certificate or affidavit that it is true.”

The court said “Confirmation of the correctness, truth, or authenticity of a pleading, account, or other paper, by an affidavit, oath, or deposition.” McDonald v. Rosengarten, 134 111. 126, 25 N. E. ; and Summerfield v. Phoenix Assur. Co. (C. C-) 65 Fed. 296; and Patterson v. Brooklyn, 6 App. Div. 127, 40 N.Y. Supp. 581.

The gist of it is that verification requires a sworn testimony. It can be testimony in a deposition or in court or an affidavit. The only testimony that is admissible is testimony from a witness with First Hand knowledge. No court clerk or county recorder’s clerk or any has first hand knowledge. And if someone verifies but that someone doesn’t have first hand knowledge, then it’s not verification, its Hearsay. And hearsay is inadmissible court.

Here is the law that gets information provided by third parties removed: FCRA § 603(o)(5)(A)(i; iii). This law applies to every single entity that furnishes information to the credit bureaus.

Here’s what this law says:

FCRA § 603 
(o) Excluded communications. A communication is described in this subsection if it is a communication 
(5) with respect to which 
(A) the consumer who is the subject of the communication 
(i) consents orally or in writing to the nature and scope of the communication, before the collection of any information for the purpose of making the communication;
(iii) in the case of consent under clause (i) or (ii) given orally, is provided written confirmation of that consent by the person making the communication, not later than 3 business days after the receipt of the consent by that person;

The very important point of this law is that they can verify and validate all day long IF you gave your authorization. You you NEVER gave your authorization for example to the bankruptcy court or the bankruptcy trustee to give out information on your case. Or to the county recorder’s office. Or any other government entity that may have some negative information on you.

SO the law is indeed good and it is indeed on your side, but YOU need to know it.