Portfolio Recovery Associates Is Suing Me in Georgia — What Do I Do?

Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC ("PRA") is a wholly owned subsidiary of PRA Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: PRAA), one of the two largest publicly traded debt buyers in the United States. PRA is headquartered in Norfolk, Virginia, and files thousands of consumer collection lawsuits each year, including a high volume in Georgia.

PRA buys portfolios of charged-off consumer debt — primarily credit cards from Synchrony Bank, Capital One, and various store-card issuers — at deep discounts, then collects through in-house collectors and outside Georgia collection counsel.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has taken two major enforcement actions against PRA. In 2015, the CFPB ordered PRA to pay $19 million in consumer redress plus an $8 million civil money penalty for collecting unverified debts, using false affidavits, and filing collection suits without adequate documentation. In 2023, the CFPB took a second action for continued violations, resulting in an additional $24 million settlement.

Why this matters in Georgia: Georgia has the strongest published chain-of-title case law in the country for debt-buyer cases — Nyankojo and Wirth, both Georgia Court of Appeals decisions. The exact documentation gaps the CFPB sanctioned PRA for are precisely what Nyankojo and Wirth make dispositive.

If you were just served with a complaint from PRA in Georgia Superior Court or Magistrate 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 PRA at a deep discount. PRA is now suing you in Georgia because a default judgment is the most efficient way to convert that purchase into a full-balance recovery.

In Georgia, a default judgment carries serious consequences. With a judgment, PRA can garnish up to 25% of your disposable earnings, levy bank accounts, and pursue other collection remedies. A Georgia judgment is valid for seven years and can be renewed.

Georgia gives defendants something most states do not: under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-55(a), you have a 15-day grace period after missing the 30-day Answer deadline to open the default AS A MATTER OF RIGHT — meaning no judge permission is required, you simply file the Answer and pay court costs. After those 15 days, opening a default becomes much harder.

Filing a real Answer flips the case from a near-automatic default into a real lawsuit that PRA must actually prove under the demanding chain-of-title standards of Nyankojo and Wirth. Given PRA's twin CFPB consent orders documenting documentation gaps, this is exactly the kind of case where filing back works.

Georgia gives you thirty days to file your Answer after you were served with the summons and complaint. This deadline is set by O.C.G.A. § 9-11-12 and applies to civil cases in both Superior Court and Magistrate Court.

You count the thirty days starting the day after service. Weekends count. If the thirtieth day falls on a weekend or court holiday, the deadline rolls to the next business day under O.C.G.A. § 1-3-1(d)(3). "Served" in Georgia generally means a sheriff or licensed process server personally handed you the papers, or — under certain conditions — left them with someone of suitable age at your usual residence.

Georgia has a unique second-chance rule that makes it more forgiving than most states. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-55(a), you have a 15-day grace period after missing the 30-day deadline to open the default by filing your Answer and paying costs. During those 15 days, the right to open the default is automatic. This is one of the strongest debtor protections in the country at the answer stage.

After the 15-day grace period closes (so 45 days from service total), opening a default requires showing both providential cause and a meritorious defense under § 9-11-55(b) — a much harder standard.

Georgia has the strongest published debt-buyer chain-of-title case law in the country. Two Georgia Court of Appeals decisions are binding precedent and have been applied in dozens of PRA-style cases.

Nyankojo v. North Star Capital Acquisition, 298 Ga. App. 6 (2009), held that an assignment must (a) be in writing, (b) identify both the assignor and the assignee, and (c) affirmatively link the specific account by account number. Affidavits alone are not sufficient.

Wirth v. CACH, LLC, 300 Ga. App. 488 (2009), reinforced and extended Nyankojo. The court held that bills of sale without account-level attachment are insufficient. A generic transfer of a portfolio without identifying the defendant's specific account does not establish standing.

This maps almost perfectly onto the CFPB's findings against PRA. The 2015 consent order required PRA to obtain the original cardholder agreement and account-level transfer files before suing — and the 2023 action found PRA still falling short. The exact paperwork PRA was sanctioned for lacking is the same paperwork Nyankojo and Wirth require it to produce in every Georgia case.

In practice, PRA complaints filed in Georgia routinely fail Nyankojo and Wirth. The chain of assignment is often presented as a generic block transfer. The original cardholder agreement is often not attached. The bills of sale do not identify the defendant's specific account. Each defect supports a motion to dismiss for lack of standing.

Under Georgia law, PRA must establish standing both at the pleading stage and at trial. Defendants who raise this defense in their Answer and pursue it through discovery often see PRA voluntarily dismiss rather than face a Nyankojo/Wirth challenge with thin documentation.

For credit card debt and most consumer accounts in Georgia, the statute of limitations is six years under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24. The clock starts running on the date of your last payment or last charge.

Georgia has separate SOLs for written contracts (six years) and open accounts (four years under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-25). Georgia courts have applied the four-year SOL to some credit card cases framed as "account stated," depending on how the original creditor's billing structure works. If PRA is suing on an account stated theory and the relevant facts support the four-year SOL, the time-bar may apply earlier.

The statute of limitations in Georgia is an affirmative defense that must be raised in your Answer or it is waived. Under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-8(c), affirmative defenses must be specifically pleaded.

The CFPB has specifically found PRA filed lawsuits on time-barred debts in both 2015 and 2023. Calculate your dates carefully — and consider whether the four-year open-account SOL might apply to your case based on how the complaint is framed.

Most credit card agreements contain a clause requiring that any dispute be resolved through binding arbitration administered by AAA or JAMS. When PRA bought your account, they bought it subject to whatever terms were in the original cardholder agreement.

Georgia's arbitration rules have a critical procedural trap defendants must understand. Under Tillman Group v. Keith, 201 Ga. App. 680 (1991), if you litigate the merits of the case before moving to compel arbitration, you waive arbitration. The waiver rule is strict. The motion must be filed BEFORE or WITH your Answer — not after.

This means timing matters more in Georgia than in most other states. If you file an Answer that responds substantively without simultaneously filing a motion to compel arbitration, you may have waived the right.

The Georgia Arbitration Code is codified at O.C.G.A. § 9-9-1 et seq. The court will compel arbitration if the agreement is valid and the dispute falls within its scope. 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 the disputed debt is, say, $3,200, the cost of arbitration may exceed the recoverable amount, and PRA often abandons.

Your Answer is the most important document you will file in this case. A good Answer in Georgia does three things: it admits or denies each numbered allegation under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-8(b), it raises every applicable affirmative defense under § 9-11-8(c), and — where appropriate — it raises a counterclaim.

For the admit-or-deny portion: do not admit anything you do not actually know. If PRA alleges that you owed Synchrony Bank $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 a Georgia PRA Answer include lack of standing or chain of title under Nyankojo v. North Star Capital Acquisition and Wirth v. CACH, LLC; statute of limitations under O.C.G.A. § 9-3-24 (or § 9-3-25 if applicable); failure to state a claim; account stated cannot be established; arbitration clause (if the original agreement contains one — and you must file the motion to compel WITH the Answer to avoid the Tillman Group waiver); and failure to satisfy any account-specific assignment requirements.

Where FDCPA violations are present — and PRA's twin CFPB consent orders make these unusually likely — consider an FDCPA counterclaim in federal court for statutory damages plus attorney's fees.

What you should never do: do not admit you owe the debt. Do not call PRA. Do not promise to pay. Do not ignore the lawsuit. Remember the Tillman Group waiver rule on arbitration — file the motion with your Answer.

Georgia has consumer protection laws that apply to debt collection, though they are more limited than the strong state-level FCCPA in Florida or CSPA in Ohio. The Georgia Fair Business Practices Act, codified at O.C.G.A. §§ 10-1-390 et seq., prohibits unfair or deceptive practices in consumer transactions. Application to debt-buyer suits is fact-specific.

The federal FDCPA applies to PRA and is the primary statutory consumer-protection vehicle in Georgia debt-buyer cases. The FDCPA prohibits false statements, misrepresentations of the amount or character of the debt, suing on time-barred debts, and abusive collection tactics. FDCPA violations entitle you to up to $1,000 in statutory damages plus attorney's fees in federal court. The CFPB findings against PRA are direct evidence of FDCPA-violative conduct.

Georgia's real strength for defendants lies not in its consumer protection statutes but in its procedural rules and case law. Nyankojo and Wirth provide some of the strongest binding precedent in the country on chain of title. The 15-day grace period under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-55(a) is a unique second chance for defendants who miss their initial deadline. The strict Tillman Group arbitration waiver rule is unusual but, for defendants who file motions correctly, gives strong leverage.

The combination of these procedural advantages, FDCPA counterclaim availability, and PRA's twin CFPB consent orders means PRA faces real downside risk in Georgia cases.

After you file your Answer with the Georgia court clerk and serve a copy on PRA's attorney, the case enters discovery. Discovery in Georgia is governed by O.C.G.A. § 9-11-26 and following.

In a PRA case, this is where the chain-of-title defense gets tested. You can serve a request for production of documents under O.C.G.A. § 9-11-34 demanding every assignment document, every bill of sale, the original cardholder agreement, and the complete account history. PRA must respond within thirty days. If they cannot produce a clean chain of title satisfying Nyankojo and Wirth, their case is in serious trouble.

What very often happens next is a settlement offer. Georgia practitioners report that PRA commonly settles real-Answer cases for forty to sixty cents on the dollar.

If the case does not settle, it proceeds to a court date. Cases under $15,000 are typically heard in Georgia Magistrate Court, designed for non-lawyers. Cases above $15,000 are in State Court or Superior Court under full Georgia Civil Practice Act procedures.

Answered is a self-help legal platform built specifically for pro se defendants in consumer debt collection lawsuits. The Georgia playbook was reviewed by a Georgia-licensed consumer-rights attorney and is built around the specific statutes and rules that govern PRA cases — O.C.G.A. § 9-11-12, § 9-11-55(a), § 9-3-24, § 9-9-1 et seq., Nyankojo v. North Star Capital Acquisition, Wirth v. CACH, LLC, and Tillman Group v. Keith.

When you upload your summons and complaint, Answered does the following: it extracts your service date and your 30-day Answer deadline plus the 15-day grace period under § 9-11-55(a); it scans for the procedural defects most commonly found in PRA pleadings, including missing chain-of-title documents and account-level identification failures under Nyankojo and Wirth (the exact defects the CFPB sanctioned PRA for); it identifies whether your debt may be time-barred under § 9-3-24 (or § 9-3-25 if applicable); it checks whether an arbitration clause is likely available and reminds you of the Tillman Group waiver rule; and it generates a court-ready Answer.

The Answer document is formatted for Georgia Superior Court, State Court, or Magistrate Court depending on the venue, includes the proper caption and case style, and contains the affirmative defenses.

Pricing is simple: free to start, and a one-time $99 charge to unlock and download your final documents.