J
Legal
Judgement
The court ruled against you in a debt case. Now it's official — you owe this money. A judgement gets published on your credit report and basically tells every lender in the country 'this person ignored their debt.' It's on there for five years and it's kak.
Usage Examples
"Andile ignored a summons from his cell phone contract and they got a default judgement against him without him even showing up in court. Dof."
"Zanele got a judgement for an old store account. For five years after that, every loan application was automatic no. After five years, it dropped off her record and she could start fresh."
"The silver lining: if you pay off the full amount owed, you can apply to court to have it rescinded and removed from your record. Costs money and time, but it's possible."