How to pay a judgement if there's no record of it?

[Chuzzle]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virgina. My brother is trying to get his driver's license back, so we went to the courthouse to get information on the judgment against him (that resulted in his license being suspended) in order to pay it. Since it happened in 96, the records have since been purged and there is no record of this judgment at the courthouse nor is it on his credit report. Yet proof that the judgment was paid has to be provided to DMV. How can it be paid if no one knows who to pay?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.

 

[Zigner]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Virgina. My brother is trying to get his driver's license back, so we went to the courthouse to get information on the judgment against him (that resulted in his license being suspended) in order to pay it. Since it happened in 96, the records have since been purged and there is no record of this judgment at the courthouse nor is it on his credit report. Yet proof that the judgment was paid has to be provided to DMV. How can it be paid if no one knows who to pay?

Any thoughts or suggestions would be welcome.

I would suggest that he talk to somebody at the DMV and bring along so proof that there is no record of a judgement against him.

 

[Chuzzle]

Thank you. That was my thought also. Headed to the DMV, hopefully he'll get a license instead of the runaround.

 

[Chuzzle]

Update: The DMV does have the judgment information but this is where it gets interesting: There are two of them, by the way. The first one, the attorneys office no longer have the case files and the second one, the attorney's office listed no longer exists.

Now what?

 

[justalayman]

the attorneys wouldn't be the plaintiff so the debt is owed to somebody else. If the DMV has the information concerning the judgments, have them tell you who the judgment creditor is.

 

[Chuzzle]

There are two insurance companies listed, as well as the last names of the plaintiffs represented. We'll try to find out more from the insurance companies next.

 

[cosine]

Update: The DMV does have the judgment information but this is where it gets interesting: There are two of them, by the way. The first one, the attorneys office no longer have the case files and the second one, the attorney's office listed no longer exists.

Now what?

If these are judgments, there has to also be court information. Get that information and go to the reference court clerk and get it.

 

[Chuzzle]

Cosine, you would think that the courts would have this information but they do not because they purge their records every ten years.

We are also having no luck whatsoever locating or contacting the plaintiffs. Should my brother try to file to have the judgments vacated?

 

[justalayman]

something doesn't make sense. A judgement issued in Virginia is valid for 20 years. It would make no sense they would purge the information on a judgment that was still valid. It should also show up on his credit report as well.

 

[Chuzzle]

Justalayman,

I know it doesn't make sense, but the court just flat out doesn't have any record of it. All records are purged after ten years, at least they are in Newport News. And it's not on his credit report either, that was the first place we checked.

I'm thinking that filing to have the judgment vacated might actually draw out the plaintiffs since they would have to be notified. Otherwise, have the judgments vacated simply because the plaintiffs can't be found. We're not sure what else we can do since we have not been able to locate the plaintiffs ourselves. The information the DMV gave us on the judgments contained contact information that is now outdated.

 

[cosine]

something doesn't make sense. A judgement issued in Virginia is valid for 20 years. It would make no sense they would purge the information on a judgment that was still valid. It should also show up on his credit report as well.

If that's true, then the court itself is in violation of the law for discarding the information early, right? And isn't this a criminal violation?

 

[cosine]

Try filing a motion with the court to get an order to be issued to the DMV to clear their records so they match what the court has.

 

[Chuzzle]

Thank you Cosine, we will try that.

The fact that the court purged the records would certainly explain why, in the past several years, they have told my brother, "You need to go to the DMV," and nothing else.