In situations where a client is attempting to close on a home it is imperative that their credit report is free and clear of any judgments against them. In this case, our client contacted us in a panic because he was attempting to close on a home and was told that a judgment had come up during the title search that the bank ran before approval. A judgment in this scenario is a major red flag for the bank and can lead to the whole deal to break apart. Our client was made aware that he had a judgment against him from 2006 that was owned by Palisades Collection, an old and low end debt buyer. The debt was bought and sold multiple times and was also transferred from law firm to law firm a few times. The notorious debt collection law firm, Pressler and Pressler obtained a default judgment against our client in 2006 but was unable to ever enforce the judgment against our client. Eventually the judgment was transferred over to the debt collection law firm of Todd Houslanger and Associates.
Houslanger often receives these files after previous attempts at collection and enforcement are unsuccessful. We contacted Houslanger’s office immediately to demand that the judgment against our client be vacated and that the case be dismissed. Due to the many issues regarding lack of service, assignment paperwork from the transfer of the debt from firm to firm and the lack of notice to our client about the transfer of the judgment from Pressler and Pressler to Houslanger and Associates, Houslanger and Palisades collection agreed to both vacate the judgment against our client and discontinue the case entirely. This was a huge relief for our client as we were able to provide the countersigned stipulation of judgment vacature and discontinuance to the mortgage broker and bank so that our client would be able to finalize obtaining the mortgage for his new home.