Post Judgment Payment - pay or not pay?

[ColsJudgement]

I was hit with a judgment by attorneys representing Platinum Financial Services Corp. in January 2004. I have never been contacted for payment of this judgement and my wages are not currently being garnished.

I wanted to clear this from my credit report once and for all by making some sort of settlement offer. When I contact the attorneys for Platinum a few weeks ago, I was told that they no longer hold this debt - I was taken over by Palisades Acquisition in 2005.

The SOL in Ohio is 21 years, but the debt goes dormant after 5 years and cannot be collected upon unless the creditor goes back to court; in Ohio, the creditor can renew at least once every 5 years for entire 21 years. From what I have researched in the court records, nobody has ever refiled.

I want this debt off my credit record... better yet, I want to pay it off and never have to worry about it again. What should I do? Should I try to find the new creditor and negotiate a settlement? Should I have the original attorneys for Platinum re-acquire this debt and negotiate with them? Should I dispute this on my credit record since the attorneys for Platinum no longer hold the debt and shouldn't be reporting that it's not paid?

When attempting to settle a judgment with the creditor, should I apply the same rules of negotiation as I would with a CA?

The judgment is dormant but I want to pay it off and get it out of my life. Should I start at about 25% of the current debt and work from there?

The original judgment was for $9,500 but with interest it's probably up to about $16,000.

[unusualsuspect]

Disputing it with the bureaus is the first step I'd take... I'm willing to bet it would come off of there.

Then I'd get a copy of the original court file. The supposed assignment should be in the file, with contact info for Palisades. Then carefully write out a settlement agreement - start at 5 cents on the dollar.

[ColsJudgement]

I went to the clerk of courts office in Ohio where the judgment is on record and there is no mention of assignment to Palisades in the file. I received information of assignment from someone at the law office of the firm that is shown as the debtor on the judgment. The person I spoke to told me that "if I wanted, [they] could get the judgment back from Palisades".

The judgment has become dormant in November 2009, but Ohio law provides that it can be revived until November 2030. According to my credit reports, Palisades (located in NJ) has made no soft or hard pulls against my credit report since being assigned this debt in 2005.

Because there is no record of assignment to another collection firm, should I try to negotiate with the original creditors or Palisades? It is my understanding that only the judgment holder of record can mark this judgment as "paid" and have the information reported/removed from my credit report.