Public records are legal records reported on you, usually by a court of law. Adverse public records include bankruptcies, foreclosures, garnishments, and tax liens and they can severely hurt your FICO® score. Other types of public records such as divorces are not considered by your FICO® score.
Court of law
This is the name and/or jurisdiction of the court that filed this public record.
Case number
This is the number used by the court to identify this public record.
Date filed
This is the month and year that this public record was first filed or created by the court.
Status
This is the status of the public record most recently reported to the credit bureau by the court. Some common statuses:
Paid or Satisfied: the amount the court has found you responsible to repay has been paid in full.
Unsatisfied: the amount the court has found you responsible to repay has not yet been paid in full.
Dismissed: a status for a bankruptcy, this means that the bankruptcy has been terminated without being discharged or denied a discharge. Both you and all of your creditors have the same rights and obligations as you had before the bankruptcy proceeding.
Discharged: a status for a bankruptcy, this means that the court has removed your obligation to pay remaining debts.
Amount
This is the amount of debt which the court found you responsible to repay. Sometimes, an "Amount" reported by one credit bureau means the same thing as a "Liability" reported by another credit bureau.
Plaintiff
This is the name of the person or company who filed the lawsuit seeking repayment of a debt.
Defendant
This is usually you, the person who was sued by another person or company seeking repayment of a debt.
