Portfolio Recovery Associates Is Suing Me in Indiana — 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 Indiana.

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 Indiana 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. In 2023, the CFPB took a second action for continued violations, resulting in an additional $24 million settlement.

Why this matters in Indiana: Indiana has one of the most detailed debt-buyer pleading statutes in the country — the Debt Buyer Pleading Act, IC 24-5-15.5, effective in 2020. The Act's three-element attachment requirement maps almost exactly onto the documentation gaps the CFPB sanctioned PRA for.

If you were just served with a complaint from PRA in Indiana Circuit Court or Superior 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 Indiana because a default judgment is the most efficient way to convert that purchase into a full-balance recovery.

In Indiana, a default judgment carries serious consequences. With a judgment, PRA can garnish up to 25% of your disposable wages, levy bank accounts, and pursue other collection remedies. An Indiana judgment is valid for ten years and renewable.

Filing a real Answer flips the case from a near-automatic default into a real lawsuit that PRA must actually prove under IC 24-5-15.5 and TR 9.2. They often choose to settle or dismiss rather than do that work — particularly because Indiana's pleading requirements are unusually detailed and PRA has a documented history of failing to meet them.

Indiana gives you twenty-three days to file your Answer after you were served with the summons and complaint. This deadline is set by Indiana Trial Rule 12(A)(1).

You count the twenty-three days starting the day after service. Weekends count. If the deadline falls on a weekend or court holiday, the deadline rolls to the next business day under Ind. Trial Rule 6(A).

If you miss the twenty-three-day deadline, PRA will move for default judgment under Ind. Trial Rule 55. Once a default is entered, vacating it requires a motion under TR 60(B) showing one of the rule's grounds for relief and a meritorious defense.

Indiana has one of the most detailed debt-buyer pleading statutes in the country. The Indiana Debt Buyer Pleading Act, codified at IC 24-5-15.5 and effective in 2020, requires every debt-buyer complaint filed in Indiana to attach three specific items:

(a) the original signed agreement — or, if the original signed agreement is not available, the charge-off statement; (b) the names of ALL prior owners of the debt with the dates of transfer between them; (c) a bill of sale evidencing the transfer of the debt to the plaintiff.

Failure to attach any of these is a deceptive act under the Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act (IC 24-5-0.5). The DCSA provides for actual damages, treble damages or $500 per violation (whichever is greater), and attorney's fees on uncured violations.

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 IC 24-5-15.5 requires it to attach to every Indiana complaint.

Indiana also requires an Affidavit of Debt under Ind. Trial Rule 9.2 for account-based claims. The leading Indiana case is Rock Creek Capital LLC v. Tibbett, 231 N.E.3d 256 (Ind. Ct. App. 2024), which held that debt buyers are "debt collectors" under the FDCPA and "suppliers" under the DCSA, meaning a defective collection suit is itself a deceptive act.

For credit card debt and most consumer accounts in Indiana, the statute of limitations is six years under Ind. Code § 34-11-2-9, which governs claims founded on accounts and contracts not in writing. The clock starts running on the date of your last payment, not on charge-off — see McMahan v. Snap-On Tool Corp., 478 N.E.2d 116 (Ind. Ct. App. 1985), and Ganz v. Ohio Casualty, 51 N.E.3d 415 (Ind. Ct. App. 2016). Indiana case law is clear that charge-off is not the trigger; the last-payment date is.

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 — payment history is usually visible going back several years.

Indiana has specific rules on revival. Under Ind. Code § 34-11-1-2, a written acknowledgment of the debt — and importantly, a signed writing — is required to revive a time-barred debt. Partial payment alone may also revive in some contexts, but the rule is more limited than in some states. Critically, an oral acknowledgment is not enough.

The statute of limitations in Indiana is an affirmative defense that must be raised in your Answer. Under Ind. Trial Rule 8(C), affirmative defenses must be specifically pleaded. If you fail to plead the SOL, you waive it.

This defense is unusually important in PRA cases because the CFPB has specifically found PRA filed lawsuits on time-barred debts in both 2015 ($19M consumer redress + $8M civil penalty) and 2023 ($24M settlement). The CFPB's 2015 consent order required PRA to disclose to consumers when a debt was past the limitations period; the 2023 action found ongoing problems with this practice. Combined with the IC 24-5-15.5 attachment defenses and the Rock Creek Capital DCSA counterclaim, the time-bar defense is one of the strongest tools available against PRA in Indiana.

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.

When an Indiana defendant files a motion to compel arbitration under IC 34-57-2-1 et seq. — Indiana's Uniform Arbitration Act — and the court grants it, PRA must choose between paying thousands in arbitration filing fees or abandoning the case. They very often abandon, which can result in a dismissal.

To use this defense, you generally need a copy of the original cardholder agreement showing the arbitration clause. PRA is required to produce that document — and IC 24-5-15.5 already requires it to be attached to the complaint, which makes the arbitration motion easier than in most states. Pair the arbitration motion with an IC 24-5-15.5 dismissal motion and a DCSA counterclaim under Rock Creek Capital for maximum leverage.

Your Answer is the most important document you will file in this case. A good Answer in Indiana does three things: it admits or denies each numbered allegation under Ind. Trial Rule 8(B), it raises every applicable affirmative defense under Trial Rule 8(C), and — where appropriate — it raises a DCSA counterclaim under Rock Creek Capital.

The affirmative defenses to consider in an Indiana PRA Answer include lack of standing or chain of title; failure to comply with IC 24-5-15.5 (missing signed agreement, missing prior owners with transfer dates, missing bill of sale); failure to satisfy Ind. Trial Rule 9.2 Affidavit of Debt requirements; statute of limitations under Ind. Code § 34-11-2-9; failure to state a claim; account stated cannot be established; and arbitration clause.

Where DCSA violations are present, raise a counterclaim under IC 24-5-0.5 for actual damages, treble damages or $500 per violation (whichever is greater), and attorney's fees on uncured violations.

Indiana has one of the strongest consumer protection regimes in the country for debt-buyer cases. The Indiana Deceptive Consumer Sales Act, codified at IC 24-5-0.5, prohibits unfair, abusive, and deceptive acts in consumer transactions.

Under Rock Creek Capital LLC v. Tibbett, 231 N.E.3d 256 (Ind. Ct. App. 2024), the Indiana Court of Appeals held that debt buyers are "suppliers" under the DCSA — meaning a defective collection suit is itself a deceptive act under IC 24-5-0.5-3. The damages available under the DCSA are powerful: actual damages, plus treble damages or $500 per violation (whichever is greater), plus attorney's fees on uncured violations under IC 24-5-0.5-4. The fee-shifting feature dramatically changes the risk calculation in PRA cases — even small cases where the consumer wins generate substantial attorney-fee liability.

The Indiana Debt Buyer Pleading Act (IC 24-5-15.5) is itself part of the consumer protection framework. Failure to comply with its three-element attachment requirement (signed agreement, all prior owners with transfer dates, bill of sale) is a deceptive act under the DCSA, providing a direct hook for the counterclaim. PRA was specifically sanctioned by the CFPB twice for failing to maintain exactly this kind of documentation, which makes Indiana defendants unusually well-positioned to combine procedural and substantive defenses.

The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act also applies to PRA. Rock Creek Capital confirmed that debt buyers are "debt collectors" under the FDCPA. 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 actual damages plus attorney's fees in federal court. The CFPB findings against PRA — collecting unverified debts, using false affidavits, and suing without adequate documentation, with $19M in 2015 redress plus $8M penalty and a further $24M settlement in 2023 for continued violations — are direct evidence of FDCPA-violative conduct.

The combination of DCSA treble damages, FDCPA statutory damages, IC 24-5-15.5 attachment requirements, and PRA's twin CFPB consent orders means Indiana is one of the most defendant-favorable states in the country for PRA cases.

After you file your Answer with the Indiana court clerk and serve a copy on PRA's attorney, the case enters discovery. Discovery in Indiana is governed by Ind. Trial Rule 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 Ind. Trial Rule 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 the documents required by IC 24-5-15.5, their case is in serious trouble.

What very often happens next is a settlement offer. Indiana 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 $10,000 are typically heard in Indiana small claims under simplified procedures.

Answered is a self-help legal platform built specifically for pro se defendants in consumer debt collection lawsuits. The Indiana playbook was reviewed by an Indiana-licensed consumer-rights attorney and is built around the specific statutes and rules that govern PRA cases — Ind. Trial Rule 12(A)(1), 9.2, IC 24-5-15.5, Ind. Code § 34-11-2-9, IC 24-5-0.5, and Rock Creek Capital LLC v. Tibbett.

When you upload your summons and complaint, Answered does the following: it extracts your service date and your 23-day Answer deadline; it scans for the IC 24-5-15.5 pleading defects most commonly found in PRA pleadings — missing signed agreement, missing prior owners with transfer dates, missing bill of sale (the exact defects the CFPB sanctioned PRA for); it checks the Affidavit of Debt against the TR 9.2 standard; it identifies whether your debt may be time-barred under § 34-11-2-9; it analyzes whether a DCSA counterclaim is supported under Rock Creek Capital; it checks whether an arbitration clause is likely available; and it generates a court-ready Answer.

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