Below are the different ways by which you can pay off an existing judgment if it’s filed against you.

• Pay directly to the court.
• Pay directly to the person you owe.
• Arrange to make monthly payments.

Follow the steps below if you want to pay the judgment directly to the court.

• Go to the court and get the form called “Request to Pay Judgment to Court.”
• Fill the form and include any interest you owe. See for the collection costs and interests added on your judgment.
• File the form with the court clerk at the courthouse where the case was heard.
• Pay the filing fee and the full amount of the judgment to the court.

After you have paid off the judgment, the county clerk will enter a Satisfaction of Judgment in the court record. It will be a proof of the judgment being paid off. He will also contact your judgment creditor and update him with the payments made to the court. Always check your credit report and see if its timely updated with your payments.

In case, you want to pay directly to the creditor, mail or write a check or send a money order to the creditor who has filed the judgment against you. Your cancelled check will be an important proof of the payment being done from your side.

After the creditor receives your payment, he needs to file a form called “Acknowledgment of Satisfaction of Judgment” with the court within 15 days. The court will be informed that the creditor has received payment from you and the judgment is satisfied. Just in case, the creditor hasn’t filed the papers and you have proof of the payments done, get the form called Clerk’s Certificate of Satisfaction of Judgment. Fill it up and attach your proof of the payment done and submit it at the court. The court will enter a satisfaction of judgment in your court record.

What you need to do when you are not sure about the debt being paid? Follow the simple steps below.

• Draft a letter to your creditor and request him to file papers of Satisfaction of Judgment within 15 days of receiving payment. If he is not updating your payments, you can sue him for $50 plus damages.
• There is one form called Notice of Motion. State that you want to have the court “Enter Satisfaction of judgment”
• Fill it with the clerk and pay the fees. The clerk will schedule a hearing date and notify the creditor. At the hearing, if the court is convinced by your story that the debt is paid, the court will enter the satisfaction of judgment.

Make sure that you see your credit report updated after the judgment is paid.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 7th, 2007 at 7:01 pm and is filed under Creditors, Debt, Personal Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.