Will a judgment against me in personal injury case appear on my credit report?
Full Question:
Answer:
A judgment against you for a personal injury case (as opposed to a settlement out of court) may be researched to the various credit bureaus even if the judgment was paid by your insurance company. The credit reporting bureaus search the Judgment Roll for unpaid judgments which are public records. The insurance company most likely was not a party to the lawsuit, so they will see your name on the Judgement Roll. If the judgment was paid, it should not affect your credit adversely.
The rule under the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act is that the lien is allowed to stay on the credit report for the longer of 7 years or however long the lien is good under the applicable state law. In California, judgments are enforceable for 10 years and are renewable for another 10 years and then renewable after that. Once a judgment's been renewed, it can't be renewed again until 5 years later. When the judgment is renewed, the interest that has accrued will be added to the principal amount owing.
Credit reporting agencies typically don't try to keep up with how long each type of lien is valid and instead simply drop the entries off after 7 years.
