Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania

You shpuld see a lawyer to file Petition to strike the judgment. The failure of the judgment holder to revive the judgment, and the fact that it is 30 yeasr old, essentially make the judgment worthless, but in order to have it stricken, you need a lawyer who is familiar with proper motion practice. Especially in Philadekphia.

You indicate that the accident occurred 30 years ago but you do not indicate when the judgment was entered. Judgments on real property are collectible for 5 years but have to be renewed every 5 years to continue. Judgments on personal property last for 20 years. However, just because a judgment cannot be collected through execution (levy on your personal property, bank account or land) does not mean that it ever goes away.

I find it somewhat hard to believe that your husband truly had no notice of this before now unless he was somehow served with the complaint at an old address or unless a person was misidentified. Before you do anything, I would go to the court where the judgment was entered and get a copy ofthe pertinent documents - at a minimum you will need the summons and complaint, return of service by the sheriff or affidavit of service, a motion for default judgment and the entry of judgment. The court records are probably on microfiche and will have to be ordered. There is a fee for the court to copy the documents for you. Pay it as you are going to need them.

You should then take the file/documents to a local attorney and get advised as to whether the judgment can be opened/stricken off after this much time. Pay an attorney for a 30 minute consult as it will be worth it.

Depending on what the attorney says, it may be the only thing that can be done is to get the judgment resolved. If that is the case, then you are going to have to offer the creditor something less than the full amount to get this resolved. I don 't know what the original balance was or how much it has grown to be with interest (it earns interest at a rate of 6% per year). It may be that the creditor will be so thrilled to get some amount of money after this much time that they will be overjoyed and be willing to accept $10,000 or less. Before you pay out any funds, you need to get a letter from them indicating what the judgment now is, how much they will settle for and that they will mark it satisfied once the amount is paid. Once the judgment is satisfied, then your husband will be able to get his driver's license renewed.