impact of civial judgement on citizenship

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prime877

Registered Users (C)
hi, guys,

i was in a dispute ($1300) with landlord 7 years ago in VA. We have not had any contact after exchanging 2 letters in early 1996. Basically I broke the lease. In 1999, it reflected on my credit report as DISPUTE. I found out last week.

I called landlord everyday trying to solve this. however, she is very sloopy and not responsive.

question is: what is the chance lardlord went to court? if so, what kind of judgement would be there against me? if so, is it a problem on N-400? i checked N-400, it does not ask for these civil issues. or i could still answer NO to all good moral character questions, right? as if this dispute had not happened?

i am really exhausted on immigration. F1, H1, GC, etc,etc really take a toll on my personal happyness. many times, i just told myself to stop and goback to home country.

any inputs are welcome.
 
If the court's final judgement is that you have to pay,
then you have to pay. If you refuse to obey an court order,
you can be arrested for contempt of court.

I think contempt of court can be noncriminal or criminal.
If it is noncriminal, then you stay in jail until you promise
to obey teh court order. If it is criminal, you can be
formally charged no matter you later obeyed the court order
or not.
 
One thing you should know: by federal law (passed
as some credit act), you have the right to enter a
100-word story into your credit report to tell your
side of the story. Call Experian, Trans Union, and
Equifax to find out how to do it.
 
One thing you should know: by federal law (passed
as some credit act), you have the right to enter a
100-word story into your credit report to tell your
side of the story. Call Experian, Trans Union, and
Equifax to find out how to do it.
 
One thing you should know: by federal law (passed
as some credit act), you have the right to enter a
100-word story into your credit report to tell your
side of the story. Call Experian, Trans Union, and
Equifax to find out how to do it.
 
collection agency

Typically, collection agencies "buy" disputed items from the original "owner" (=landlord in your case) for a certain percentage of the value and then harass the alleged debtor to make him/her pay the whole disputed amount directly to the collection agency.

That is most likely the reason why your landlord is not interested in solving this matter because he/she already got part of the money from a collection agency A LONG TIME ago.

I would do the following things to get your credit rating up:
1. sit down over the weekend and collect all the documents you have about the dispute.
2. write a letter stating precisely why you don't owe the alleged sum.
3. send this letter to the credit reporting agencies and dispute the entry in your credit report.
4. make a short summary of your side of the story and make the credit report agencies insert that into your credit report.

I doubt that this will go all the way to court (small claims that is...). If it does, then you have a good opportunity to present your side of the story. If you win, then move on, if you don't then just pay and move on.

It is a purely civil matter at this point and in my opinion won't matter for immigration purposes.

-disclaimer as apparently necessary in this country:
* I am not a lawyer and everything I said is just my opinion, not legal advice.
 
thanks

Thank you. I talked with Equifax these days. It appears it happened as you said. Landlord did not goto court. Otherwise there is a judgement under "public record". And landlord seemed sold debt to collection agency long time ago. However, i never got harrassed. I guess it is because I have reason to dispute and original reply to them was drafted by my corporate lawyer which was very formal and threatening.

Friends suggest me not to do anything since it will be removed from credit report in 3 months. Also, statue of limitation ran out long time ago so landlord could not bring to court.

the lesson learnt is that my life could be easily messed up if I am not careful. i would buy legal insurance next year so i could get laywer defending me free for a parking ticket
:)
 
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