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Defense Strategies

Defense Strategies guides from the Answered Blog. Back to all guides.

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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.

9 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

10 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

10 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

10 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

10 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

9 min read

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.

9 min read

Defense Strategies

Sued by Your HOA or Condo Association? This One Is Different

A few hundred dollars in missed assessments can become thousands in attorney fees and, in many states, a lien on your home. This is the debt case to take most seriously.

9 min read

Defense Strategies

Sued in Small Claims Court for a Debt? Different Court, Different Rules

The court built for people without lawyers is where most debt cases land — and it has a second-chance feature almost nobody knows about.

10 min read

Defense Strategies

Sued for Someone Else’s Debt You Cosigned or Guaranteed

You signed to help someone — a child, a friend, your own company. Now the lawsuit has your name on it, and the borrower is nowhere in the caption. What you owe depends on what you actually signed.

9 min read

Defense Strategies

Sued Over a Private Student Loan? The Paperwork Is Often the Weak Point

A loan originated by one bank, sold to a depositor, packaged into a trust, and serviced by a fourth company — then sued on. Every hand-off is a document someone has to produce.

10 min read

Defense Strategies

Sued for Old Rent or Apartment Charges? Landlord Debt Has Its Own Rules

You moved out years ago and a collector is suing for a number you have never seen itemized. Landlord-tenant law has rules about that number — and they favor you more often than people expect.

9 min read

Defense Strategies

Being Sued on a Debt You Discharged in Bankruptcy

You did the hardest financial thing there is and got the order that ended it. Then a collector who never checked sued you anyway. That is not just wrong — it may be contempt of a federal court.

9 min read