Incorrect information reported on credit report

Washington State:
In 1987 I rec’d a traffic infraction which I promptly paid.In fact it was the last citaion I ever rec’d I had no indication that the payment was not recorded in the courts records as I had not received any notice to the contrary and I was allowed to renew my Driver’s license two times ( in washington they do not let you renew if you have outstanding fines)
When in 1996 I rec’d a letter from a collection agency informing me that I had 30 days to pay the amount
owed or it would be turned over to collection . I quickly sent off a dispute letter and within a month a rec’d a court hearing on the matter. I had assumed this was in response to my dispute .
At the hearing the judge looking at the facts in the case ordered the case removed from collection.
I have not heard anything since . However, I recently received a copy of my credit report from all three reporting agencies and noticed that one of the agencies reports this incident as an adverse listing under
Collection. . Last updated in 1996. This makes me mad and I am of the opinion that the reporting is
Of such Incompetence that I wonder if there could be any liability on the part of the collection agency
That reported such .
First off the original debt was from 1987 . Just because they didn’t get around to writing me until 1996
does that make it reportable in 1996 as a new item to start its seven year life. Also I disputed this
collection right away and a judge agreed with me and removed it from collection . So why was it ever entered on the report ? Perhaps I don’t understand the workings of the reporting agency but it appears to be complete incompetence to me . I will be contacting the reprting agency tomorrow to dispute this listing.
However, is there any liability on behalf of the collection agency ? That is what I really want to know.
It hasn’t seemed to hurt my abillity to get credit that I must admit. Should I just complain to my attorney general?

Thank You

Do you have the receipt?

I would go to the credit bureau in your area with all your information and dispute it there. They may be able to remove it. It seems as if a judge realeased it but maybe it had already been reported at the time. Most collection agencies report to the credit bureau within a certian amount of time. It is standard to do on most every account with non-payment. I would say no there is no liability of the collection agency as they didnt get this debt till 1996 right? It came to them that way.

I did call and it was removed . The collection agency tried to say they did not report it but I showed them otherwise . They had it on their records as closed but never updated the information with the credit Bureau which showed an open account fom 1996 .The reason it was closed is when it first came to my attention in 1996 I proved THEN that it was paid in 1988. So there is complete bungling on this as far as I am concerned.

There is no problem with my credit report at this time ..it's fine . I just don't think a collection agency should be able to bungle like like.

[JETX]

It seems obvious that you don't understand how CRA's (Credit Reporting Agencies) work. They do NOT work for you, they work for their 'subscribers' (the creditors). They have NO obligation to verify or investigate reports that they might receive from their various sources. They only report what they receive.

It is YOUR responsibility to review your credit history periodically and to contact them if you dispute an item. The dispute process and what they are REQUIRED to do after you notify them is covered in the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) which can be found online at:
[url]http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcrajump.htm[/url]

In other words, the CRA's were NOT at fault (nor did they 'bungle' in your words) in their reporting the debt incorrectly. It was YOUR responsibility to ask that they remove it, which you subsequently did... and they did.