Among the top 10 worst things you can do to your credit record is having a court judgment filed against you for unpaid debt. It is important to understand that any court judgment against you for unpaid debt to a business or individual will remain on your credit report for seven years. Therefore, the answer to the posed questions is “Yes”. Having a court judgment will indeed lower your credit score.

A judgment can lower your credit score by 50 – 100 points. Whether the judgment is paid or not, it will still show up in your credit report for seven years. However, if the judgment is shown as paid in the credit report, it may have a less negative impact on your score. Just make sure to pay off any debt as soon as you can. It’s much better that way. Also, avoid being served papers. If you receive a summons or judgment, use The Defendant’s Package to help walk you through the process on how to effectively handle your situation leading up to court. If at all possible though, avoid going into debt or owing people large sums of money.

Once those seven years have expired from the date of entry in your credit report, the listing will automatically be removed. A judgment will typically be reported to a credit reporting agency and ultimately end up on your report. This has the potential of doing significant damage and may cause you to have to pay higher rates of interest for various credit products and services. As a result, you might also be denied when applying for credit with other creditors because of the judgment. You might consider ordering a free copy of your credit report at least once a year to verify any delinquencies on the report that don’t belong.