New York Bankruptcy Lawyer Blog

A common question we get is “How long will a judgment stay on my credit report in New York.”

A judgment stays on someone’s credit report for seven years. However, even though a judgment may no longer appear on someone’s credit report, that does not mean that the judgment is no longer enforceable. A judgment in New York is valid for twenty years. During that time it can enforced against a judgment debtor’s income and assets.

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The current recession is causing financial hardship for many people. Many people in New York find themselves with no work, or with lower income and hours than they had before. Debt collectors and collection lawyers don’t stop trying to collect debts just because we are in a recession or someone has lost his or her job.

1. Misleading and Extensive Advertising by Debt Settlement Companies.

Many people fall victim to misleading advertising schemes of the so-called debt settlement companies (also known as debt negotiation). They run constant ads on TV and radio with very sympathetic, “common Joe and Jane” type characters who explain how they had financial problems until they call the debt settlement company running the ad. Often, to try to target particular ethnic or immigrant communities, the ads use the patois and words that someone hearing the add from that community would identify with (for example, the ads targeting the Caribbean community have speakers that a listener would identify with as someone from the Caribbean).

2. Failure to Identify that Creditor Participation in Debt Settlement is Voluntary..

The critical thing that the debt settlement companies fail to clearly and prominently disclosure upfront in their advertising and promotional materials is that that participation of creditors (such as banks and credit card companies) in a debt settlement program is entirely voluntary. If a bank or credit card company does not want to participate THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING THAT THE DEBT SETTLEMENT COMPANY CAN DO TO FORCE IT TO PARTICIPATE. This means that you might hire a debt settlement company and stop paying all of your creditors as they instruct you to do while they propose a debt settlement plan, and in the meantime you may get sued by one of your creditors. This is very common and we see it all the time. We believe this is misleading practice of the debt settlement industry that should be stopped.

Bankruptcy, on the other hand, is not a voluntary process. Bankruptcy is a mandatory process and unsecured creditors (such as they typical credit card debt) don’t get to ignore it and sue you if they want to. But they can in debt settlement

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Many people considering filing for personal bankruptcy in New York have not hired a lawyer before and are not sure how to select a lawyer. Since they are not familiar with lawyers and how to evaluate and compare one lawyer with another, they focus on the one factor that they understand – the cost. While cost is certainly one factor to consider when choosing a lawyer, it is not the only factor.

1. Bankruptcy Is More Complex Due to the 2005 Changes in the Bankruptcy Law.

In 2005 as a result of credit card company lobbying the Bankruptcy Code was extensively changed by Congress. These changed created new duties for bankruptcy attorneys and made representation of consumer debtors in bankruptcy cases much more complicated than it was before. As a result, those lawyers who only dabbled in bankruptcy stopped taking new bankruptcy cases. Those lawyers who specialized in bankruptcy cases raised their rates to account for the increased cost and complexity of cases after the 2005 changes.

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