Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in New York

Fraudulent Judgement?

My acct has been put in judgement becuase of nonpayment of a car bill I cosigned for a cousin. The firm now handling this issue says notices were sent out from this Jan., but I never received anything. I own and lived at my same property for now 3 years. I thought the reason was becuase for whatever reason my work info was incorrectly listed with my cousins home info. We filed with the dealership for me to be secondary, but according to the firm I am still listed primary even if my cousin was owner. I pleaded with the firm that I didnt get any notices at anytime and my cousin says the same. I paid the 10K balance immediately to avoid additional liabilties, and looked into legal aid for credit repair. Upon requesting a cred report I see this firm also queried my information in January of this year. What now bothers me is if they were able get my credit report my valid info, couldnt they have extracted any correct mail or phone info to contact me before it reached this point. If they can lock a bank account using this information, couldnt they have contacted if they wanted to?


Asked on 8/17/05, 2:41 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Andrew Nitzberg Andrew Nitzberg & Associates

Re: Fraudulent Judgement?

This is a common problem. If you feel that the debt was valid, then your only other issue will be with 'credit repair'.

1. You describe yourself as the 'co-signor' of the note. The creditor won't care about that, just that you promised to pay the money. Once your friend falls behind in the payments, then they can go directly to you and sue both of you in court.

There are seversl ways to fix this problem.

1. The creative way is to sue the creditor in small claims court for libel. TRhat is, reporting you as deliquent when you are not. This won't get you far with the court, but the creditor will take action to fix your crdit.

2. You can make a motion to 'vacate' the judgment on the basis of lack of service. This, too, is not difficult. But it would require a lawyer. It has a high probability of success.

Try the first on your own (small claims is easy and let the creditor know what you really want then make a 'settlement' for that). If that doesn't work out, then call me and I can help.

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Answered on 8/18/05, 2:10 pm


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