Judgments are placed on when you have defaulted on a debt.  The creditor or person you owe the debt to has filed a complaint with the courts to get their money back.  A judgment will usually show up with out warning on your doorstep delivered by a constable of the court.  You will have to sign the judgment stating you will either pay the debt owed or show up in court to dispute it.

The problem is you usually owe it and you might or might not of known it was coming.  It is now on your credit report and pulling down your credit score.  Worst of all the court can implement garnishments againsts to take your paycheck before you even see it to pay off the judgment.

The best thing you can do is pay it off with the creditor or through the court if that is what is agreed too.  Pay it off better sooner than later.  The sooner it is paid off the sooner you can try to get it removed.  While you owe money it, it will almost be impossible to get it removed off your credit reports.

Once it is paid you can begin the dispute process.  You can remove judgments by disputing them to the credit bureaus.  You can do this even if legitimately belongs to you.  You must ask for verification of the judgment.  The credit bureaus must then verify the judgment with the courthouse.  If it is paid it will must likely not been on record and will be removed when it is not verified by the courthouse.

You can also the best credit repair service in the nation, Lexington Law Firm, as an alternative to disputing the judgements yourself.  They removed over 28,000 judgments in 2009 alone, so I'm sure they could remove yours.  No matter what, the sooner you get your judgments removed the better your credit will be.