Portfolio Recovery Associates Is Suing Me in Ohio — 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 Ohio.

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 Ohio 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 in court, 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 Ohio: the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act, under Taylor v. First Resolution Investment Corp., 148 Ohio St. 3d 627, 2016-Ohio-3444, treats debt buyers and their collection attorneys as "suppliers." A defective collection suit is itself a deceptive act under the CSPA, with treble damages or $200 per violation plus mandatory attorney's fees on knowing violations. PRA's twin CFPB consent orders are direct evidence that PRA had reason to know its filings were defective.

If you were just served with a complaint from PRA 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 PRA at a deep discount. PRA 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, do not understand what to file, or assume the lawsuit will go away if ignored. When that happens, the Ohio court enters a default judgment automatically.

In Ohio, a default judgment carries serious consequences. With a judgment in hand, PRA 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, filing 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 PRA, given its twin CFPB consent orders, has a particularly difficult posture defending against CSPA claims.

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 CSPA both depend on a timely Answer.

If you miss the twenty-eight-day deadline, PRA will move for default judgment under Ohio Civ.R. 55. 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.

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 PRA complaints filed in Ohio fail this requirement, attaching only a 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: zero-balance starting point, itemized charges, running balance, ending balance.

This maps directly 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. The 2023 action found PRA still falling short. The exact paperwork PRA was sanctioned for lacking is the same paperwork Civ.R. 10(D)(1) and R.C. § 1319.12(C) require it to attach to every Ohio complaint.

In practice, PRA complaints filed in Ohio routinely fall short of one or both of these requirements. Each defect supports a motion to dismiss or a Civ.R. 10(D)(1) motion for definite statement followed by dismissal if PRA 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. 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.

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.

The Ohio CSPA provides extra leverage on time-barred suits. 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. The CFPB has specifically found PRA filed lawsuits on time-barred debts in both 2015 and 2023 — and that regulatory record is direct evidence that PRA knew or should have known about the SOL status of debts in its portfolio.

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 PRA bought your account, they bought it subject to whatever terms were in the original cardholder agreement.

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, PRA 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. PRA 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. 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 under Taylor v. First Resolution.

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 an Ohio PRA 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 under R.C. § 2305.07; failure to state a claim; account stated cannot be established; arbitration clause; and CSPA violations (suing on a defective account is itself a deceptive act under Taylor).

Where CSPA violations are present — and PRA's twin CFPB consent orders make these unusually likely — 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 PRA's risk calculation.

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.

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. 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.

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 PRA. 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 CFPB findings against PRA are direct evidence of FDCPA-violative conduct.

The combination of CSPA treble damages, FDCPA statutory damages, and mandatory fee-shifting is the reason PRA settles 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 PRA's attorney, the case enters discovery. Discovery in Ohio is governed by Ohio Civ.R. 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 Civ.R. 34 demanding every assignment document, every bill of sale, the original cardholder agreement, and the complete account history. PRA 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 PRA 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 PRA commonly settles 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 PRA cases get voluntarily dismissed in Ohio after Answer.

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 PRA 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 PRA 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 (the exact defects the CFPB sanctioned PRA for); 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.

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 four states where Answered offers full mail filing — that is available for an additional flat fee.

The founder, John DiSalle, was sued by a debt buyer, fought back using exactly this process, and won.