Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in North Carolina

First, there are no "liens" on your credit report. You are mixing apples and oranges here.

(1) Judgments are entered if you owe a money debt to someone for something, not liens, and the person or company to whom you owe money sues you.

(2) Judgments in NC NEVER go away. However, for enforcement purposes, the judgment is enforceable by way of execution for 10 years only. If the creditor wishes to keep on trying to collect, they basically have to renew the judgment by filing another lawsuit before the 10 years is up from the date of entry of the first judgment. If renewed, the second judgment is good for another 10 years. So even if the judgment is no longer on the credit report a maximum of 20 years is a long long time to be able to enforce a debt obligation.

(3) Bad debts, late pays and other derogatory financial information - can stay on your credit report for about 7 1/2 years from the time you stop paying. But note that if you have a bad debt it can be listed with the original creditor and if sold to a junk debt buyer can be listed again with a junk debt buyer and if it goes to judgment it can be reported as a public record. The judgment can stay on your report for 7 years from the date of entry but the date the debt went delinquent has no bearing on this. So what this means is a bad debt could be reported and then be sold to a junk debt buyer and be on your report for 2 years; the junk debt buyer sues and gets a judgment. The judgment stays on there for 7 years (even if satisfied by resolving at some point).

(4) Because a prior judgment can be renewed by filing a second lawsuit, that second judgment can be reported on your credit for another 7 years from date of entry. It gets a new docket number.

So in sum - judgments can be reported for a total of 14 years on your credit and they will be enforceable for a maximum of 20 years regardless of whether or not they are reported on your credit.

Bottom line - if you have a judgment against you, if you are relatively young and someone who would someday like to have a home or refinance an existing home or otherwise get credit then you need to think about resolving the judgment in some way - whether its by paying in full, by settling or by bankruptcy. The only people who might not care are those who have no assets, no need for credit and some other circumstances - either advanced age or being terminally ill.

Unpaid judgments can stay on your credit report for 10 years. Judgments are easily renewed for a second 10 years. The judgment creditor files a new lawsuit against you, usually about 9 and a half years after the first judgment, and requests that the judgment be renewed. If the judgment creditor does not obtain a new judgment to renew the old judgment within 10 years, the old judgment is no longer enforceable and it will probably stop showing on your credit report.

Even if you pay a judgment in full or settle it, the judgment will still potentially show on your credit report for as long as 10 years after the judgment is entered (up to 20 years if the judgment is renewed) Judgments show on your credit report if the credit bureau researcher finds them. If a judgment does not show on your credit report and it has been less than 10 years since the judgment was entered, that does not mean that the judgment is invalid or unenforceable.

Not all liens are due to civil judgments. If you re-post your question and specify what kind of lien you are talking about, you will get a more specific answer.