Judgement

I live in Ca. in 1989 my vehicle was repo'd, apparently the note was sold to a recovery service who took me to court (I have no recollection of being served, hence did not appear), won a judgement for approx. $8300. I heard not 1 thing about this for 10 years, have always been legally employed, purchased 2 new vehicles, a home, and perfect credit. Never did this show on my credit reports. They were able to find me and tell me that I now owe over 20 grand.
q: Was there anything unethical in them waiting almost 10 years letting interest accrue..is this legal?
q: Why if they could locate me at a business PO box after 10 years but couldn't locate me to even serve me let alone sometime in the last 10 years?
q: They have had my SS # all this time, what took so long?
q: Why did this judgement never show on any credit report, my lender told me that they ran all 3 agency reports?
I need help.
Thank You

[vrzirn]

First verify the judgement: ask for copy from creditor or get it from courthouse archives. Look up the case number and find out what happened.
If they do have a judgement they can let it run, accruing interest for almost 10 years.Then they can extend it for another 6. See if you can negotiate something with them.
Have you, personally, looked at a copy of your credit report? Perhaps it is really there with tiny asterisk that was overlooked.
Didn't you ever wonder what might have happened to the note on the re-po car? Perhaps they were just waiting for you to get a few serious bucks together before they went after you again.
If they are correct they will put a lien on your house so it is truly imperative that you resolve this issue.

I recommend going to the court house and checking the file on the process service. This will show you if you were served (since you say you don't remember being served). If you weren't properly served, then I would try and file a Motion to vacate the judgment, however, keep in mind that most states have a time period in which one must do this (altho process service usually must be successful in order to render the judgment, so this may not apply.usually 10-20 days, depends on state). But, it wouldn't hurt to try to do this.