<human>: Can you condense the text into a few key points?

First off, been awhile since I've used posted so apologies if I break any rules. 

I'm in need of some assistance with information on disputes on an account in collections. I disputed said account because I wanted to see all evidence that they had on the account, as I believed they were misrepresenting certain charges. I sent the letter requesting validation of the debt to the agency within the thirty day time period from receiving the dunning notice, and they responded back with two validations (one of which contained a letter that I never even wrote in regards to the account, but that's another story). 

Since this is the first account I've ever had in collections, I didn't even think to check and see if they reported it as disputed on to the CRAs. I only found out it was good to check after I had already received the validations, and at that point, the accounts were not marked as disputed. 

My question is: if they did report it as disputed, would that be a permanent mark on the account, or could they take it off after validating the debt? Also isn't the collections agency supposed to mark the outcome of the dispute on the report?

The main point of all this is: did they break the law (or how can I determine if they did)?

I tried googling all this, but I feel I don't know the jargon to do it correctly. Please let me know if I should ask elsewhere or if more info is needed to answer.
<bot>: disputed a debt, never saw a dispute comment on credit report, wondering how long disputes stay on report and if collection agency can remove disputes after validating.