Is there a legal way to have paid delinquencies removed from my credit report?

nope sorry. It will stay on there for 7 yrs from the original delinquency date. The creditor reports it every month to the credit reporting agencies and thats why it shows up. If you call your creditor and push them on it sometimes they will agree to remove it from your report. Ask them to send you a letter saying they removed it from your report. Mail that letter (make a copy) to any of the 3 credit reporting agencies and they will remove it immediately