What does legal items mean when denied credit?

A denial of credit entitles you to get a free copy of your credit report, at www.annualcreditreport.com. "Legal items" presumably means you've been sued and have had judgments issued against you. If you were never served with any complaints, see a lawyer ASAP to see if you can get any judgments set aside.

It generally means that there are legal issues out there which show up on your credit report, and that the lender is afraid that these issues would effect your ability to pay. So that usually means judgements against you, or lawsuits or defaults, or even mechanic's liens in some cases. It might even show that there are warrants for your arrest. The first thing you should do is check case.net and run your name to make sure there are no judgments or suits against you and if there are, you should contact an attorney. The second thing you should do is obtain your credit report (annualcreditreport.com) and see what is reported against you. Sometimes they put lawsuits on there that are not even yours, it might be a mistake and you will want to bring that to their attention and get your credit cleaned up.