A court judgement can be placed on your credit file or company credit file after a decision from the courts has been made regarding the rights and liabilities of parties from a proceeding. This occurs after you have received a writ or Form 5A and fail to file an appearance within the proper time. Court judgement information on a credit file can have a negative impact when seeking finance because providers may see you or your company as high risk. Often, the only solution is finance through a high interest lender, which will result in much higher interest rates because of the high risk nature of lending to consumers or commercial entities with bad credit.

In Australia, court judgements can be set aside and the information relating to the judgement destroyed by the Credit Reporting Body if there is a bona fide reason. Each state in Australia has different documentation, which must be filled appropriately and submitted to the relevant court. Credit Reporting Bodies are required by legislation to respond to requests for the deletion of information within 30 days. If they fail to respond in 30 days, a complaint can be submitted to the relevant Ombudsman through the External Dispute Process (EDR). Court judgement information stays on consumer and/or commercial credit files for a period of 5 years so it is important to see if you or a professional service, such as a credit repairing agency can help to remove the negative listing.

If you are unsure of whether or not you have a court judgement on your credit file or company credit file, you can contact us today to receive a free copy of your credit file instantly. Otherwise, you can order a copy of your credit file from Equifax directly but it will take 10 days to receive unless you pay to have it delivered within one business day. There are three main Credit Reporting Bodies in Australia and just because you have a clear file with one of the main three, does not mean that you do not have bad credit with another. It is important to check your Equifax, Dun & Bradstreet and Experian credit file to determine whether or not you have bad credit. For help checking your credit files, call us today.

To see if we can help remove information relating to a court judgement from your credit file, contact us today and one of our consultants will assess your situation and run an audit over your credit file, which is done at no cost to you. If we can take you on as a client, you will be appointed a case manager who will work on a positive outcome for yourself. Only if and when your amended credit file is sent to you from the Credit Reporting Body, do we recommended applying for finance/s again.