Credit Lawyer
What Precisely Does A Credit Lawyer Do? | Cook Law, LLC
How can a credit lawyer help you? Having an excellent credit score is very important for a lot of reasons. We all know what it takes to have one. Income consistency and responsibility when spending money are the best ways to keep your credit score at the top level. Your credit history contained in your credit report shows everything that creditors, lenders, landlords, or prospective employers want to know about you. Many important things in your life depend on your good credit score. Also, a high credit score will bring you lower interest rates on loans, mortgages, and credit cards. That will save you thousands of dollars in a lifetime of a loan or a mortgage.
But what to do if your credit score plunges without an obvious reason? This is an indication that there is something wrong with your credit report. So, what to do then, and where to start taking care of your credit score? The answer to this question may be to find a reliable credit lawyer.
A credit lawyer is a term everyday people use for an attorney with practiced expertise in credit repair. The term is not recognized in a legal industry like “personal injury lawyer” is, or “bankruptcies lawyer” but it is generally accepted for a lawyer who deals with credit report problems on behalf of a consumer.
When inaccurate or incorrect information appears in your credit report, it is up to you to inform credit reporting bureaus about these mistakes and dispute them. This is where a credit lawyer can help. Actually, the field of expertise of credit lawyers is wider than that and covers anything from reviewing a credit report to identify erroneous information, composing dispute letters in order to remove these errors, contacting and communicating with lenders and creditors on your behalf, helping you with a debt settlement, representing you in court and finally to advising you on how to improve your credit score.
Can A Credit Lawyer Fix Negative Marks In My Report?
The credit repair process starts with reviewing your credit report to identify errors, inaccuracies, and misreported information. You may be confused about what an inaccuracy is. For example, inaccuracies are mixed files, brothers and sisters with the same name, or juniors and seniors with the same name and their information appearing on your report. Someone else’s information shouldn’t be on your report. A public record that is no longer true is an inaccuracy. If you had a judgement against you and it was vacated and it is still being reported on your credit report, that is an inaccuracy. But inaccuracy is not your complaint with your creditor that you have paid your bill on time while they think you missed it. If creditors have a record about you missing your payment and you swear you didn’t, that is something else, it is not an inaccuracy.
That is why the expertise of a credit lawyer is so important. A credit lawyer understands clearly your rights and doesn’t want to waste time on negative items in your credit report that can’t be removed. The idea that everything you don’t like can be removed from your credit report sounds tempting, but it is simply not true. Pieces of information that generate negative marks in your report but are true, can’t be removed from your report. Anyone who promises to remove negative marks from your report that can be verified is only trying to deceive you.
A Credit Repair Agency Or A Credit Lawyer
You may decide to hire a credit repair company to help you repair your credit. Before you do that, here are some facts that distinguish credit lawyers and credit repair companies. Credit repair agencies usually charge a monthly fee and sometimes it is not in their best interest to do your credit repair fast. Credit lawyers usually take cases on a contingency basis, so there are no out-of-pocket responsibilities for credit lawyer fees.
Credit repair companies have multiple clients at the same time and your case may be handled by an employee without any background in law. Actually, it is not required for a credit repair company to have a lawyer employed. Credit repair companies are not licensed to practice law. So if they don’t succeed in removing inaccurate information in a dispute process, they are not able to take it to the next level and seek recovery for negative impacts resulting from improper reporting. In other words, a credit repair company can’t file a lawsuit and appropriately address the issue. You will need to hire a lawyer for the job.
Can I Sue A Credit Reporting Agency?
There are several federal laws protecting your rights as a consumer. The Fair Credit Reporting Act is just one of them. The Credit Repair Organizations Act sets requirements credit repair companies have to abide by and protects you from deceptive advertising of these companies. The Fair Credit Billing Act and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act are also put in place to protect your consumer rights and ensure you are treated fairly.
If a credit reporting agency, credit card issuer, debt collector, or credit repair company violates any of these laws, you should consider filing a lawsuit. Depending on the violation you may be able to win damages, court costs, and attorneys’ fees. A good credit lawyer has no doubts about which path to take when helping you with your credit repair. When in the process of repairing your credit, it is wise to entrust your case to someone who can help you even if your case goes beyond simple information dispute. Certainly, that entity is not a credit repair company.
Hiring a Credit Lawyer: What to Consider and Expect
When hiring a credit lawyer, there are several factors that should be considered. The most important factor is to make sure the attorney has experience dealing with credit-related cases and that they understand the complexities of the law. Also, it is important to research their legal credentials and track record for successful outcomes in similar cases.
Another key factor to consider is whether the lawyer has a good working relationship with credit bureaus and other financial institutions. A great lawyer will be able to work closely with all relevant parties in order to get a favourable outcome for their client.
The cost of hiring a credit lawyer should also be taken into consideration. Most lawyers charge an hourly rate, although some may offer flat fees or other payment options. It is important to compare the costs and services of different lawyers in order to make sure that you are getting the best value for your money.
Finally, it is important to know what to expect when working with a credit lawyer. The attorney should explain any legal processes, provide updates as needed, and listen to your needs in order to ensure that you are getting the best outcome for your situation. They should also keep your information confidential, and provide ethical and knowledgeable advice.
You Can Do It Yourself But …
The ultimate goal of credit repair is to improve your credit score, so you pay less on interest rates for loans mortgages, and credit cards. But it is a long road to go before you reach your goal. It is true that all the steps that need to be taken you can take yourself. You can write dispute letters yourself and try to do all the heavy lifting in order to fix issues on your credit report but it is time-consuming. It will take you much more than few hours. You need to learn about your rights under various laws. It is tricky to have the right response to your problem without previous experience. All the things you lack in a situation like this a credit lawyer has, knowledge, expertise, understanding of your rights, time, and license to practice law if needed. There is a lot at stake, the differences between the implications of excellent and very poor credit scores are huge. No one can afford not to take seriously credit report issues, so it is more often than not advisable and favorable to hire a credit repair lawyer.