The Answered Blog
Guides for people fighting debt collection lawsuits, with state-specific deadlines, defenses, debt buyer profiles, and filing steps.
High-intent lawsuit guides
These pages match urgent searches from people who were just sued and need state-specific next steps before a default deadline.
Defense Strategies
Georgia Statute of Limitations on Credit Card Debt: 6 Years — or 4, Depending on How They Plead It
Georgia runs two limitations clocks for consumer debt, and the plaintiff’s own complaint chooses which one applies. Debt buyers sometimes choose the shorter one without realizing it.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Michigan Statute of Limitations on Credit Card Debt: 6 Years, Plus a 30-Day Quirk
Michigan’s six-year clock has a counting quirk that decides borderline cases, and a signed-writing revival rule that protects defendants better than most states.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Missouri Statute of Limitations on Credit Card Debt: 5 Years, and a Revival Rule Worth Quoting
Missouri gives credit-card defendants a five-year clock, an unusually strong anti-revival statute, and a borrowing statute that imports shorter out-of-state periods. Few defendants use any of them.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Ohio Statute of Limitations on Credit Card Debt: 6 Years Now — and Old Claims Hit a Wall in 2027
Ohio rewrote its debt limitations rules in 2021, cutting some periods nearly in half — and the transition rules put a hard 2027 expiration date on a whole generation of old claims.
Read more →
Debt Buyer Lawsuits
Alliant Capital Management: They Don’t Own Your Debt — Here’s Why That Matters
Alliant works as a servicer under contract with lenders — it does not buy the paper. That single fact routes everything about how to handle their letters.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Can My Bank Take Money From My Account to Pay a Debt? (Setoff, Explained)
Money vanished from your checking account with no lawsuit and no warning. If the debt was owed to the same institution, that was probably legal — and preventable.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
The Collector Offered a "Payment Plan." Read It Before You Sign — It May Be a Judgment
The friendly call comes right after you’re served: "We can set up payments and you won’t even have to go to court." The paper that follows is often you, agreeing to a judgment against yourself.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
The Divorce Decree Says My Ex Pays This Debt. So Why Am I Being Sued?
One of the most painful surprises in consumer debt: the decree was real, the judge signed it, your ex was ordered to pay — and none of that stops the lawsuit against you.
Read more →
Debt Buyer Lawsuits
National Debt Holdings: The Debt Buyer You’ll Never Hear From Directly
A passive debt buyer sits in the middle of ownership chains — buying, holding, and reselling portfolios while other companies do the collecting. That middle position is exactly where proof problems live.
Read more →
Debt Buyer Lawsuits
Orion Capital Solutions: Who They Are, and What a "Lawsuit" Actually Means Here
Orion Capital Solutions is a collection agency, not usually a plaintiff. That distinction decides what to check first when their name shows up in your life.
Read more →
Debt Buyer Lawsuits
P&B Capital Group: Who They Are, and Who Actually Sues
P&B Capital Group collects other companies’ debts — which means the name on their letters is rarely the name that would appear on a summons. Sorting that out is step one.
Read more →
Debt Buyer Lawsuits
Spire Recovery Solutions: Who They Are, and Why the Name on the Letter Matters
Spire collects both under its own name and under creditors’ names — so the account behind a Spire contact can be closer to, or further from, a courtroom than the letter suggests.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Sued for Debt While on Active Duty? The SCRA Gives You Real Weapons
Deployed, in training, or stationed across the country while a debt lawsuit runs at home — Congress wrote a statute for exactly this. Most servicemembers never learn it exists.
Read more →
Debt Buyer Lawsuits
Sued by Velocity Investments in Pennsylvania? What to Check First
If Velocity Investments sued you in Pennsylvania, start with which court track your papers put you on — the deadline differs — then check the loan agreement, the assignment chain, and the arbitration clause most of Velocity’s paper carries.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Debt Lawsuit Mediation: What to Expect (and What You Can’t Be Forced to Do)
A mediation notice reads like another hearing to lose. It isn’t — it’s a structured negotiation where showing up prepared routinely cuts debts by half or ends cases entirely.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
How Long Does a Debt Judgment Last? Longer Than the Debt Ever Would Have
The statute of limitations on the debt was a few years. The judgment that replaces it can outlive a mortgage — renewable, interest-bearing, and patient. That asymmetry is the whole argument for defending the case.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Sued in the Wrong County? Debt Collectors Have a Venue Rule — and Break It
A courthouse three hours away is not just an inconvenience — distance manufactures defaults. Federal law anticipated the tactic in 1977 and banned it.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
What Happens at a Debt Collection Trial (Usually: Less Than You Fear)
The word "trial" conjures juries and cross-examination. A debt collection trial is usually twenty minutes in front of a judge — and the plaintiff has the harder job.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Settled a Debt, Got a 1099-C? The Tax Bill Nobody Mentions
You negotiated $8,000 down to $3,000 and felt the weight lift — then a 1099-C arrived calling the other $5,000 "income." For many settlers, one IRS form makes that tax bill vanish.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Ordered to Appear in Court After a Debt Judgment? Do Not Skip This One
You cannot be jailed for owing money. You absolutely can be arrested for ignoring a court order to show up — and this order is designed to be ignored by people who don’t know the difference.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Sued for Debt While on Social Security or Disability? Your Income Is Protected
Millions of defendants living on federal benefits panic over garnishment that federal law already forbids. What is actually protected, the bank-account trap, and why answering still matters.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Avoiding the Process Server? Here’s What Actually Happens Next
The dodge instinct is universal and completely understandable — and it is a trap. The case proceeds anyway; the only thing you avoid learning is your own deadline.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Can Debt Collectors Text, Email, or DM You? The 2021 Rules Nobody Explained
Collectors can text you, email you, and send private social messages — with limits most consumers have never been told, and that collectors break constantly.
Read more →
Defense Strategies
Can I Appeal a Debt Collection Judgment? Which Door You Actually Need
A judgment landed against you. There are three different ways to attack it, they have different deadlines, and picking the wrong one wastes the only time you have.
Read more →
Answered walks you through every step of your defense. One unlock if your case fits: Full Defense Packet - $99 — everything included.