When I was in my late teens, I made some bad choices. Most notably, I was on SSI, which the government retroactively decided I was not eligible for. They put the debt on my credit report, some years passed, and it completely eventually fell off a year or two ago. The debt went unpaid.
Now, I received a letter of administrative wage garnishment for 15% (!) of my income. However, I never went to or was summoned to court for this matter for this action. When I read up on what public records can appear on your credit report, Experian, Equifax and TransUnion all insist that the three kinds are: bankruptcies, tax liens, and judgments. Experian in particular insists that there are no other public records that can show up on your credit report.
The only way I can see this as showing up on my credit report is if it's considered a "judgment." So, the question is, is this a "judgment"? And furthermore, is my interpretation incorrect? That is, is there a good likelihood that this unpaid debt will continue to haunt my credit report in some capacity?