LVNV Funding Is Suing Me in Ohio — What Do I Do?

LVNV Funding LLC is one of the largest passive debt buyers in the United States. Headquartered in Greenville, South Carolina, LVNV is part of Sherman Financial Group LLC and was founded in 2001 specifically to purchase portfolios of charged-off consumer debts.

When a bank like Citibank, HSBC, Capital One, or GE Capital decides an account is uncollectible, it sells that debt — often for two to eight cents on the dollar — to a debt buyer. LVNV is one of the biggest buyers in the country. LVNV does not service the debt itself; it uses an affiliated company called Resurgent Capital Services LP to manage collections and engage local Ohio collection attorneys.

In 2022, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a consent order against Resurgent Capital Services for collecting on debts consumers had disputed by submitting Identity Theft Reports and for unfair billing practices. Resurgent paid a one-million-dollar civil money penalty and was required to provide consumer redress.

The key fact: LVNV is not your original creditor. LVNV did not lend you any money. LVNV bought your charged-off account at a deep discount, hoping to collect the full balance plus interest. Ohio is one of the strongest states in the country for fighting back against this business model — the Consumer Sales Practices Act treats LVNV and its collection attorneys as "suppliers" subject to fee-shifted treble damages, which dramatically tilts the risk-reward calculation when defendants challenge a baseless suit.

If you were just served with a complaint from LVNV Funding in Ohio Court of Common Pleas or Municipal Court, here is what almost certainly happened. You fell behind on a credit card or other consumer account. The original creditor wrote the account off and sold it as part of a portfolio to LVNV at a deep discount. LVNV is now suing you in Ohio because a default judgment is the most efficient way to convert that purchase into a full-balance recovery.

Industry data and CFPB studies confirm that the majority of consumers sued in debt collection cases never file an Answer. They get scared, they do not understand what to do, or they assume the lawsuit will go away if they ignore it. When that happens, the Ohio court enters a default judgment automatically.

In Ohio, a default judgment carries serious consequences. With a judgment in hand, LVNV can garnish up to 25% of your disposable earnings, conduct a debtor’s examination to find your assets and bank accounts, and pursue other collection remedies. An Ohio judgment is valid for five years and can be renewed.

What makes Ohio different from many states is the leverage built into the Consumer Sales Practices Act. Under Taylor v. First Resolution Investment Corp., 148 Ohio St. 3d 627, 2016-Ohio-3444, the Ohio Supreme Court held that debt buyers and their collection attorneys are "suppliers" under the CSPA, meaning a defective collection suit is itself a deceptive act. Filing a real Answer with a CSPA counterclaim flips the case from a routine collection into a fee-shifted consumer-protection action — and LVNV often chooses to settle or dismiss rather than face that risk.

Ohio gives you twenty-eight days to file your Answer after you were served with the summons and complaint. This deadline is set by Ohio Civ.R. 12(A)(1) and applies to most civil debt collection cases in Ohio Court of Common Pleas and Municipal Court.

You count the twenty-eight days starting the day after service. Weekends count. If the twenty-eighth day falls on a weekend or court holiday, the deadline rolls to the next business day under Ohio Civ.R. 6(A). "Served" in Ohio generally means service by certified mail, by sheriff, or by a process server, depending on the method chosen by the plaintiff. Check the docket and the return of service to confirm the date you were served.

Ohio’s twenty-eight-day window is one of the longer Answer deadlines in our network — but the additional time should not encourage delay. The procedural defenses available under Ohio Civ.R. 10(D)(1) and the Consumer Sales Practices Act both depend on a timely Answer.

If you miss the twenty-eight-day deadline, LVNV will move for default judgment under Ohio Civ.R. 55. The court will normally grant the default if procedural requirements are met. Once a default is entered, vacating it requires a motion under Civ.R. 60(B) showing one of the rule’s grounds for relief, a meritorious defense, and timeliness — a multi-part test that gets harder the longer you wait.

The single most important step you can take right now is to mark your deadline on your calendar and treat that date as the most important date on your schedule. Do not wait until day twenty-seven.

Ohio has two distinct procedural rules that protect defendants in debt-buyer cases. The first is Ohio Civ.R. 10(D)(1), which requires the account itself to be attached to the complaint when the claim is founded on an account. The second is Ohio Revised Code § 1319.12(C), which separately requires collection-agency plaintiffs — including out-of-state debt buyers operating in Ohio — to attach a written assignment specifying the effective date of the assignment and the consideration paid.

A generic portfolio bill of sale alone is not enough under § 1319.12(C). The assignment must be account-specific and must show consideration. Many LVNV complaints filed in Ohio fail this requirement, attaching only a Resurgent custodian affidavit or a generic block transfer.

The key Ohio case on the substance of the account requirement is Asset Acceptance Corp. v. Proctor, 156 Ohio App. 3d 60, 2004-Ohio-623, which sets a four-element "provable sum" test. The attached account must show: a zero-balance starting point; itemized charges; a running balance; and an ending balance. If any of these elements is missing or unclear, the attached account is insufficient under Civ.R. 10(D)(1).

In practice, LVNV complaints filed in Ohio routinely fall short of one or both of these requirements. The chain of assignment is often presented as a generic block transfer, the consideration is often not specified, and the account itemization often does not satisfy the Proctor four-element test. Each of these defects supports a motion to dismiss or, more commonly, a Civ.R. 10(D)(1) motion for definite statement followed by dismissal if the plaintiff cannot cure.

For credit card debt and most consumer accounts in Ohio, the statute of limitations is six years under Ohio Revised Code § 2305.07, which governs claims on open accounts and contracts not in writing. If LVNV waited too long after you stopped paying, your debt may be too old to collect — but only if you raise this defense yourself.

The clock starts running on the date of your last payment. If you made your last payment in March 2018, the six-year clock began on that date and expired in March 2024. A lawsuit filed in late 2024 would be filed outside the limitations period and would be time-barred. If you cannot remember when you last paid, look at your old credit reports or request the original creditor’s records.

The statute of limitations in Ohio is an affirmative defense that must be raised in your Answer. Under Ohio Civ.R. 8(C), affirmative defenses must be specifically pleaded. If you fail to plead the SOL, you waive it — and LVNV gets a judgment on debt they had no legal right to collect.

LVNV is well known for filing on accounts that are right at the edge of the limitations period or even past it, betting that the consumer either will not raise the defense or will not respond at all. The CFPB has criticized this practice in repeated enforcement actions. The Ohio CSPA reinforces the protection: under Taylor v. First Resolution, suing on a known time-barred debt may itself be a deceptive act, supporting a counterclaim with treble damages or $200 per violation plus mandatory attorney’s fees on knowing violations.

If your last payment was anywhere near six years ago, calculate the date carefully and raise this defense.

Most credit card agreements contain a clause requiring that any dispute be resolved through binding arbitration administered by AAA or JAMS. When LVNV bought 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.

Ohio is uniquely strong on arbitration motions for defendants. Under Ohio Revised Code § 2711.02, a stay of litigation pending arbitration is mandatory when a valid arbitration clause exists — the trial court has no discretion to refuse it. And under R.C. § 2711.02(C), a denial of a stay is immediately appealable as a final order. This gives Ohio defendants two layers of leverage that defendants in many other states do not have.

The practical effect: when an Ohio defendant files a motion to compel arbitration in a credit-card case, LVNV must choose between paying AAA or JAMS commercial filing fees of $1,500 to $5,000 or more — fees that often exceed the disputed debt — or abandoning the case. They very often abandon.

Midland Credit Mgt. v. Bowers, 2025-Ohio-2578 (7th Dist.), confirms that R.C. § 2711.02 applies to debt-buyer cases. The mandatory stay rule is not limited to commercial disputes; it applies in full force to consumer credit collection.

To use this defense, you generally need a copy of the original cardholder agreement showing the arbitration clause. LVNV is required to produce that document if you request it during discovery. Pair the arbitration motion with a Civ.R. 10(D)(1) attack on attached documents and a CSPA counterclaim for maximum leverage.

Your Answer is the most important document you will file in this case. It is your formal response to LVNV’s complaint, and it locks in your defenses for the rest of the lawsuit. A good Answer in Ohio does three things: it admits or denies each numbered allegation under Ohio Civ.R. 8(B), it raises every applicable affirmative defense under Civ.R. 8(C), and — where appropriate — it raises a CSPA counterclaim.

For the admit-or-deny portion: do not admit anything you do not actually know. If LVNV alleges that you owed Citibank $3,217.42 as of a charge-off date you do not remember, deny that allegation for lack of knowledge.

The affirmative defenses to consider in an Ohio LVNV Answer include lack of standing or chain of title under R.C. § 1319.12(C); failure to comply with Ohio Civ.R. 10(D)(1) and Asset Acceptance Corp. v. Proctor; statute of limitations (the debt is older than six years under R.C. § 2305.07); failure to state a claim; account stated cannot be established; arbitration clause (if the original agreement contains one); and CSPA violations (suing on a defective account is itself a deceptive act under Taylor v. First Resolution).

Where CSPA violations are present, raise a counterclaim under R.C. § 1345.09 for actual damages plus treble damages or $200 per violation, with mandatory attorney’s fees on knowing violations. This dramatically changes LVNV’s risk calculation.

What you should never do: do not admit you owe the debt. Do not call LVNV to "explain your situation." Do not promise to pay. Do not ignore the lawsuit. The 28-day clock is unforgiving once it runs.

Ohio has one of the most powerful consumer protection statutes in the country for debt collection defendants — the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act, codified at Ohio Revised Code §§ 1345.01–1345.99.

The single most important Ohio Supreme Court case is Taylor v. First Resolution Investment Corp., 148 Ohio St. 3d 627, 2016-Ohio-3444. Taylor held that debt buyers and their collection attorneys are "suppliers" under the CSPA, meaning the Act applies to debt collection litigation itself. The Court further held that filing a defective or baseless collection suit can be a deceptive act under R.C. § 1345.02.

The damages available under the CSPA are powerful: actual damages, plus treble damages or $200 per violation (whichever is greater), plus mandatory attorney’s fees when the violation is knowing. R.C. § 1345.09. This is fee-shifting in the strongest sense — even a small case that the consumer wins generates real attorney-fee liability for LVNV.

In addition to the CSPA, R.C. § 1319.12(C) imposes specific assignment-disclosure requirements on collection agency plaintiffs, and Ohio Civ.R. 10(D)(1) requires the account to be attached to the complaint.

The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act also applies to LVNV and Resurgent. 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.

The combination of CSPA treble damages, FDCPA statutory damages, and mandatory fee-shifting is the reason debt buyers often dismiss Ohio cases when they see a real Answer with counterclaim.

After you file your Answer with the Ohio court clerk and serve a copy on LVNV’s attorney, the case enters discovery. Discovery in Ohio is governed by Ohio Civ.R. 26 and following.

In an LVNV case, this is where the chain-of-title defense gets tested. You can serve a request for production of documents under Civ.R. 34 demanding every assignment document, every bill of sale, the original cardholder agreement, and the complete account history. LVNV must respond within twenty-eight days. If they cannot produce a clean chain of title that satisfies R.C. § 1319.12(C) and the Proctor four-element test, their case is in serious trouble.

What very often happens next is a settlement offer. The economics for LVNV change dramatically once they realize they are facing a defendant who is going to make them prove their case — and who may have a CSPA counterclaim with treble damages and mandatory fees pending. Ohio practitioners report that debt buyers commonly settle real-Answer cases for forty to sixty cents on the dollar, sometimes much less.

If the case does not settle, it proceeds to a court date. Cases under $6,000 are heard in Ohio small claims under simplified procedures. Cases above $6,000 are in Municipal Court General Civil or Court of Common Pleas, depending on the amount.

A meaningful share of LVNV cases get voluntarily dismissed in Ohio after discovery, especially when chain of title is weak or the CSPA counterclaim raises real risk. Many more settle for a deeply discounted lump sum.

Answered is a self-help legal platform built specifically for pro se defendants in consumer debt collection lawsuits. The Ohio playbook was reviewed by an Ohio-licensed consumer-rights attorney and is built around the specific statutes and rules that govern LVNV cases — Ohio Civ.R. 10(D)(1), R.C. § 1319.12(C), R.C. § 2305.07, R.C. § 2711.02, and the CSPA framework from Taylor v. First Resolution.

When you upload your summons and complaint, Answered does the following: it extracts your service date and your 28-day Answer deadline; it scans for the procedural defects most commonly found in LVNV pleadings, including missing account attachments under Civ.R. 10(D)(1), missing R.C. § 1319.12(C) assignment documentation, and failures of the Proctor four-element test; it identifies whether your debt may be time-barred under the six-year SOL of R.C. § 2305.07; it checks whether an arbitration clause is likely available under R.C. § 2711.02; it analyzes whether a CSPA counterclaim is supported under Taylor; and it generates a court-ready Answer with the affirmative defenses that apply to your case.

The Answer document is formatted for Ohio Court of Common Pleas or Municipal Court, includes the proper caption and case style, and contains the affirmative defenses and (where applicable) CSPA counterclaim language.

Pricing is simple: free to start, and a one-time $99 charge to unlock and download your final documents. There is no subscription. There is no per-document fee. If you also want Answered to print, sign, and mail your Answer to the court via certified mail — Ohio is one of the states where Answered offers this service — that is available for an additional flat fee.

This product exists because the founder, John DiSalle, was sued by a debt buyer, fought back using exactly this process, and won. He built Answered so that other defendants do not have to figure it out from scratch.