When did he file bankruptcy, and has anybody bothered to contact the bankruptcy court to view the bankruptcy file?
You can learn a lot about a person that way, if you really want to (not that you should, but you could).
As for the judgments: what court/where, what amount, and has he satisfied them yet or are they still unpaid?
Sometimes decent, solvent people get sued and have judgments entered against them, but they then pay them off / satisfy them ASAP in order to try to "make things right" and begin to rebuild their shattered credit.