Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Arizona

I stopped paying on my credit cards a few years ago because my financial situation drastically changed. I also had to foreclose on my home at the time. A few months ago one of the credit cards hired a law firm to try to collect the debt from me. I was served papers and went to court. In the end we settled and I paid off the debt with my tax return. I have four more credit cards I stopped paying on a few years ago. Recently I was again served papers from one of the remaining four creditors who hired a law company to represent them. I can�t afford to pay them and the other creditors that might come after me. I currently have bad credit because of my foreclosure and walking away from those credit cards a few years ago. I am also self-employed. My question is if I receive a judgment against me will the judgment go away in 7 years if they are unable to collect? If yes, will the seven years be from when I stopped paying those cards or from the date I receive the judgment against me?


Asked on 6/06/12, 11:58 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Joyce Johnson-Stovall Johnson Stovall and Associates PLLC

If a judgment is obtained against you, the judgment creditor is required to renew the judgment within a statutory period. Generally, they renew the judgments every 4 years and 9 months to keep the judgment active. They may try to collect the judgment by garnishing wages, forcing an involuntary bankruptcy, placing a lien on real property etc. They may even attempt to obtain a receiver to gather payments from the business of a self employed person. The credit reporting agencies keep those judgments on their records until they are challenged and cannot be validated. The court records will show the judgments in their system and they don't disappear off the court records. One of the ways to make the judgments go away is by filing a bankruptcy... then the judgment become noncollectable because the obligation may be discharged by the bankruptcy court.

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Answered on 6/06/12, 1:08 pm


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