Cavalry SPV Is Suing Me in Illinois — What Do I Do?

Cavalry SPV I LLC is a debt buyer headquartered in Valhalla, New York. The company was founded in 1998 and operates with its affiliated servicer, Cavalry Portfolio Services LLC, which handles collections — calls, letters, and the local Illinois collection attorneys who file lawsuits in Cook County, DuPage County, Lake County, and the rest of Illinois Circuit Court. The "SPV" in Cavalry SPV I LLC stands for Special Purpose Vehicle. That entity choice matters for your Illinois defense, because portfolios commonly pass through several Cavalry entities — Cavalry Investments LLC, Cavalry SPV I LLC, Cavalry SPV II LLC, and bankruptcy-remote successor SPVs — before a complaint is filed against you.

The defining fact about Cavalry, the one you must understand and reference in your Illinois defense, is the 2015 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau consent order. That order is one of the largest debt-collection enforcement actions in CFPB history. The bureau found that Cavalry Portfolio Services and related Cavalry entities had been using false statements in debt-collection lawsuits and collecting on time-barred debts without required disclosures. The result was approximately $92 million in consumer relief plus a $10 million civil money penalty.

Cavalry buys credit card debt and auto loan debt at deep discounts. The most common original creditors in Cavalry portfolios are Citibank, HSBC, Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, GE Money Bank, and Washington Mutual. Cavalry did not lend you any money. They bought your charged-off account and are now using the Illinois court system to convert that purchase into a full-balance recovery.

If you were just served with an Illinois Circuit Court complaint from Cavalry SPV I LLC, here is the chain of events that almost certainly led to it. You fell behind on a credit card or auto loan. The original creditor — a bank like Citibank, HSBC, or Capital One — eventually charged the account off as a loss. The bank then bundled your account into a portfolio with thousands of others and sold the entire portfolio to a Cavalry entity at a deep discount, often two to eight cents on the dollar. Cavalry is now suing you in Illinois because a default judgment is by far the cheapest way to convert that bargain-priced purchase into a full-balance recovery.

CFPB studies and Illinois practitioner data confirm that the majority of consumers sued in debt collection cases never file an Answer. They are scared, they do not understand the procedure, or they assume the case will go away if they ignore it. When that happens, the Illinois court enters a default judgment, and Cavalry walks away with the right to garnish up to fifteen percent of your gross wages, levy your bank accounts, and pursue other Illinois collection remedies.

The 2015 CFPB consent order specifically called out the default-judgment-by-attrition pattern that Cavalry exploits. Cavalry is one of the more litigious debt buyers nationally — they file at high volume and they collect heavily on cases where the consumer never appears. A default judgment in Illinois stays on your credit report for years and can be renewed.

Filing a real Answer flips the case from a near-automatic default into a real lawsuit that Cavalry must actually prove under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 280 — and that is exactly the work Cavalry often refuses to do.

Illinois gives you thirty days to file your Answer or other responsive pleading after you were served with the summons and complaint. Thirty days is the standard deadline in Illinois Circuit Court for civil debt collection cases.

You count the thirty days starting the day after service. Weekends count. If the thirtieth day falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or court holiday, the deadline rolls to the next business day. "Served" in Illinois generally means a sheriff or licensed process server personally handed you the papers, or — under specific conditions — left them with someone of suitable age at your home or workplace. If you are unsure how service was made, look at the affidavit of service in the court file.

If you miss the thirty-day deadline, Cavalry will move for default judgment, and the court will almost certainly grant it. Illinois courts can vacate a default for good cause shown under 735 ILCS 5/2-1301(e) within thirty days of judgment, but you must file a motion, you must show good cause and a meritorious defense, and the court has discretion. After thirty days, vacating becomes much harder under § 2-1401, which requires diligence and meritorious defense plus newly discovered evidence or due process grounds.

The single most important step you can take right now is to mark your deadline on your calendar — thirty days from the day after service — and treat that date as the most important date on your schedule until your Answer is filed.

Illinois has one of the strongest debt-buyer pleading rules in the country, and it is the rule that defeats more Cavalry cases in Illinois Circuit Court than any other defense. Illinois Supreme Court Rule 280, adopted in 2022, fundamentally changed what a debt buyer must disclose on the face of its complaint.

Under Rule 280.2, a debt-buyer complaint in Illinois must disclose the name of the original creditor; the original account number; the date and amount of the charge-off balance; every assignment date in the chain of title; and an itemization of any post-charge-off interest and fees. The complaint must also attach the underlying account documentation. If any required disclosure is missing or defective, Rule 280.4 supports dismissal with leave to amend.

Cavalry’s SPV structure makes Rule 280 compliance especially difficult. Each Cavalry entity transfer — Cavalry Investments to Cavalry SPV I, Cavalry SPV I to a downstream SPV, and so on — is a separate assignment that must be disclosed and dated under Rule 280.2. Cavalry complaints filed in Illinois routinely fall short. The chain of assignment is often presented as a generic block transfer without account-level identification. Post-charge-off interest is often unitemized. The original cardholder agreement is often missing entirely. Each defect is a basis to challenge the complaint under Rule 280.4.

A second, distinct defense exists under 225 ILCS 425/8 — the Illinois Collection Agency Act. An out-of-state collection agency that is not licensed in Illinois cannot lawfully collect debts here, and a judgment obtained by an unlicensed collector is void. This is a complete defense — not a partial one. Always check whether Cavalry SPV I LLC and Cavalry Portfolio Services LLC hold current Illinois licensure for the relevant period. The 2015 CFPB consent order also addressed Cavalry’s false statements in court filings — a record that Illinois judges will weigh when evaluating Cavalry affidavits.

For credit card debt and most consumer accounts in Illinois, the statute of limitations is five years under 735 ILCS 5/13-205. If Cavalry waited too long after you stopped paying, the debt may be too old to collect — but only if you raise this defense yourself in your Answer.

The clock starts running on the date of your last payment or the first missed payment, depending on how the case is framed. If you made your last payment in March 2019, the five-year clock began then and expired in March 2024. A Cavalry lawsuit filed in late 2024 on that debt would be filed outside the limitations period and time-barred. If you cannot remember when you last paid, look at your old credit reports — payment history is usually visible going back several years.

The 2015 CFPB consent order against Cavalry is directly relevant here. The CFPB found that Cavalry was collecting on time-barred debts without the disclosures federal law requires. That is the central federal finding against Cavalry, and Illinois judges familiar with the consent order will recognize the pattern when you raise the SOL defense in your Answer.

The statute of limitations is what lawyers call an "affirmative defense." It does not happen automatically. The court will not throw out the case just because the debt is old. You must raise it in your Answer or you waive it — and Cavalry walks away with a judgment on debt the federal government has already said they should not have been collecting.

Most credit card agreements contain a clause requiring that any dispute be resolved through binding arbitration administered by AAA or JAMS. When Cavalry purchased your account, they bought it subject to whatever terms were in the original cardholder agreement — which means the arbitration clause may now belong to you.

This is one of the most powerful and least-used defenses for Illinois Cavalry defendants. Even though the arbitration clause is enforceable by either side, debt buyers usually do not want to arbitrate. AAA and JAMS commercial filing fees for a business claimant typically run from $1,500 to $5,000 or more, plus the arbitrator’s hourly fees. If Cavalry is suing you for $3,200, the cost of arbitration may exceed the recoverable amount.

This dynamic creates the "arbitration fee trap." Once an Illinois defendant files a motion to compel arbitration under 710 ILCS 5/2 and the court grants it, Cavalry must choose between paying thousands in arbitration filing fees up front or abandoning the case. Cavalry very often abandons, which can result in a dismissal — exactly the kind of pressure that makes settlement more likely.

Illinois courts will compel arbitration if the agreement is valid and the dispute falls within its scope. To use the defense, you generally need a copy of the original cardholder agreement showing the clause. Cavalry is required to produce the agreement during discovery, and the underlying creditor’s standard cardholder agreements (Citibank, Chase, Capital One, HSBC) almost universally contain arbitration clauses for accounts opened in the last fifteen years.

Your Answer is the most important document you will file in this case. It is your formal response to Cavalry’s complaint, and it locks in your defenses for the rest of the lawsuit. A good Answer in Illinois does three things: it admits or denies each numbered allegation, it raises every applicable affirmative defense, and — where appropriate — it raises a counterclaim.

For the admit-or-deny portion, the rule is simple: do not admit anything you do not actually know. If Cavalry alleges that you owed Capital One $4,217.42 as of a charge-off date you do not specifically remember, you should deny for lack of knowledge. Admitting allegations you cannot personally verify hands Cavalry elements of their case for free.

The affirmative defenses to consider in an Illinois Cavalry Answer include lack of standing or chain of title under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 280 (Cavalry cannot prove ownership across the SPV-to-SPV transfers); failure to attach required documentation under Rule 280.2; statute of limitations under 735 ILCS 5/13-205 if your last payment was more than five years before suit; failure to state a claim; account stated cannot be established; arbitration if the original agreement contains a clause; and — critically — lack of Illinois Collection Agency Act licensure under 225 ILCS 425/8, which voids the claim entirely. Where the facts support it, plead the 2015 CFPB consent order as evidence of Cavalry’s pattern of false statements and time-barred collection.

What you should never do: do not admit you owe the debt. Do not call Cavalry Portfolio Services to "explain your situation" — anything you say can be used against you. Do not promise to pay. Do not ignore the lawsuit. The 30-day clock is unforgiving.

Illinois has strong consumer protection laws for debt collection defendants, but most consumers being sued by Cavalry have no idea these laws exist.

The Illinois Collection Agency Act, codified at 225 ILCS 425, requires every collection agency operating in Illinois to be licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Section 425/8 makes unlicensed collection a complete defense — a judgment obtained by an unlicensed collector is void. This applies to out-of-state debt buyers operating in Illinois courts, and it is one of the most powerful defenses an Illinois Cavalry defendant can raise. Always check whether Cavalry SPV I LLC, Cavalry Portfolio Services LLC, and the specific Illinois collection counsel hold current Illinois licensure for the relevant period.

Illinois Supreme Court Rule 280 is technically a procedural rule, but it functions as a powerful consumer protection mechanism. It requires debt buyers to disclose every fact necessary to prove their claim on the face of the complaint — original creditor, charge-off balance, all assignment dates including the SPV-to-SPV transfers, itemized fees. Failure to comply supports dismissal under Rule 280.4.

In addition, the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act applies to Cavalry SPV and Cavalry Portfolio Services. The FDCPA prohibits false statements, misrepresentations of the amount or character of the debt, and abusive collection tactics. FDCPA violations entitle you to up to $1,000 in statutory damages plus attorney’s fees in federal court, and Cavalry is a regular FDCPA defendant nationally. The 2015 CFPB consent order — approximately $92 million in consumer relief plus a $10 million civil money penalty — is admissible evidence of Cavalry’s pattern of conduct and significantly strengthens any FDCPA counterclaim.

The combination of Rule 280 dismissals, ICAA licensure challenges, and FDCPA counterclaims means Cavalry faces real downside risk in Illinois cases — which is why many cases settle or get dismissed once a real Answer is filed.

After you file your Answer with the Illinois Circuit Court clerk and serve a copy on Cavalry’s collection counsel, the case enters discovery. Discovery is the formal process by which each side requests documents and information from the other.

In a Cavalry case, discovery is where the Rule 280 chain-of-title defense gets tested. You can serve a request for production of documents demanding every assignment document, every bill of sale, every SPV-to-SPV transfer, the original cardholder agreement, and the complete account history. Cavalry must respond within twenty-eight days under Illinois Supreme Court Rule 214. If they cannot produce a clean chain of title and an authenticated account record, the case is in trouble.

What very often happens next is a settlement offer. The economics for Cavalry change dramatically once they realize they are facing a defendant who is going to make them prove their case. Illinois practitioners report that debt buyers commonly settle real-Answer cases for forty to sixty cents on the dollar, sometimes less.

If the case does not settle, it proceeds to a court date. For amounts under $10,000, the case may be heard in Illinois small claims procedure where rules are simplified. For amounts above $10,000, the case follows full Illinois Code of Civil Procedure.

A meaningful share of Cavalry cases get voluntarily dismissed by Cavalry after discovery, especially when the chain of title across SPV transfers is weak or when Rule 280 disclosures are missing. Many more settle for a deeply discounted lump sum. Defendants who file real Answers raising Rule 280, the SOL, ICAA licensure, and the 2015 CFPB consent order win or settle far more often than defendants who default.

Answered is a self-help legal platform built specifically for pro se defendants in consumer debt collection lawsuits. The Illinois playbook was reviewed by an Illinois-licensed consumer-rights attorney and is built around the specific statutes and rules that govern Cavalry cases — Illinois Supreme Court Rule 280, 225 ILCS 425/8, and 735 ILCS 5/13-205.

When you upload your summons and complaint, Answered does the following: it extracts the key dates including your service date and your 30-day Answer deadline; it scans for the procedural defects most commonly found in Cavalry pleadings, including missing chain-of-title documents across SPV transfers, defective Rule 280 disclosures, generic Cavalry Portfolio Services affidavits, and missing post-charge-off itemization; it identifies whether your debt may be time-barred under the five-year SOL of 735 ILCS 5/13-205; it checks whether an arbitration clause is likely available; it checks for ICAA licensure issues under 225 ILCS 425/8; and it generates a court-ready Answer with the affirmative defenses that apply, including reference to the 2015 CFPB consent order where relevant.

The Answer is formatted for Illinois Circuit Court, includes the proper caption and case style, and contains the affirmative defenses. It also generates a discovery request package designed to push Cavalry to produce — or fail to produce — the chain-of-title documents required by Rule 280.

Pricing is simple: free to start, and a one-time $99 charge to unlock and download your final documents. No subscription. No per-document fee.

This product exists because the founder, John DiSalle, was sued by a debt buyer, researched his own defense end-to-end, and built Answered from that experience so other defendants do not have to assemble it from scratch.