Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Wisconsin

Unfortunately, the quality and accuracy of credit records maintained by the "big three" credit bureaus is horrible; errors, misspellings and just plain false reports are common. Since most credit searches are based upon social security numbers more than names, however, a delinquency report on a bill, even with your name misspelled, will still impact your credit adversely. While the answer to your question is therefore "no," there will therefore be negative consequences if you do not pay it. This is technically true for all bills; one never is legally required to pay unless there is a court judgment against you in favor of the creditor. Judgments can lead to wage garnishments, seizure of assets, liens against real estate, financial disclosures, and supplementary proceedings to make you disclose your assets. Some government debts can lead to these consequences even without judgments, as is the case for many tax, child support and student loan debts, but private creditors are generally required to obtain judgments before doing these things to you. However, you are not defenseless in such matters. Bankruptcy filings will discharge most private debts and leave most creditors powerless to enforce the debt further or to adversely list it as past due on your credit report. If you are having problems with creditors, you therefore owe it to yourself to at least schedule a free consultation with an experienced bankruptcy attorney. My comments here are not legal advice, nor do they create an attorney client relationship between us; rather they are only for public educational purposes on this website. You are, however, always welcome to contact my office in Racine to discuss any additional questions which you may have or to set up a free consultation.