Default judgment against right name.wrong guy?
Monday, June 29th, 2009I live in California and was contacted at work in 2006 by an investigator that was looking for someone with my same first last name. It seems my father (he has the same name as me) defaulted on money owed through his business and they were suing him. After explaining that I was not the person they were looking for (this took many conversations before they finally believed me) and that unfortunately I was estranged from my father and could not even help them locate him, they finally quit calling.
Now in 2010 I am out looking for a job and this default judgment shows up on my record during a background check! I immediately contacted the company that had sued me and told them I would really like this off my record since they had sued the wrong person. They finally offerred to write me a letter saying that this was not me and that it was a mistake. That’s awesome except the judgment will still stay on my record.
Unfortunately many employers in Southern California where I live use the local court website to access peoples records for free instead of having to pay for a real background search. Frankly the problem is thus far if you pull up my information enough stuff shows up that I don’t need things there that aren’t legit.
I still have a child support failure to pay on my record because the genius people that run this state assumed since I was not married and I had a child with my girlfriend (she is now my wife of 15 years) that I must not be financially supporting them. They filed an unpaid child support on me for $16,000.00 (they finally caught me years after my kid was born and I was living in another state) and froze my bank account and it stayed that way until my wife explained to them that she and the child had been living with me and supported by me the entire time since the baby was born! They stopped messing with my bank account but still the stupid filing against me (even thought it shows there is not an issue anymore) still makes me look like crap to a potential employer.
Now I am possibly going to have another mistake on my record that will call into question my ability to pay bills and my integrity?! If you pull up my court information the following shows up: DIVORCE (from the early 90’s) DUI (from2001) CHILD SUPPORT (mistake!) THIS DEFAULT TO PAY (mistake!) I mean it’s one thing to pull up someones past and see a divorce from when they were a stupid 19 year old kid thinking he was old enough to get married and a DUI (heck I don’t know many men over 25 in Orange County that don’t have a DUI)…but to have 3 red flags show up instead of just one?! That makes a HUGE first impression and frankly I wonder how many employers have not even bothered to call me because of it.
Is there any way to get this new one removed from my file? I have never even tried or discussed removing the child support failure to pay as I assume since it’s the state it will be near impossible to do. It’s disgusting that they ended up on my record in the first place.
The lawyer for the company that sued my father is sounding like if they pull it from my record they have to drop the money owed? I am kind of trying to read between the lines since he did not actually say that, however I kind of was picking up that if they drop it from my record all the way then they are admitting they made a mistake by getting me involved and it’s kind of admitting they made a mistake? Heck maybe they just don’t want to cough up more money to sue my father again? I am definitely no lawyer…however I hope I can get some input on this.
Thanks alot in advance!




