Q&A: How to Resolve Your Debt Lawsuit (June 7, 2023)

Edited by Hannah Locklear

The following is a transcript for one of our webinars. In it, SoloSuit's founder George Simons responds to live questions from consumers.

Disclaimer: this post is not legal advice. George is not a lawyer.

Transcript begins here

Alrighty, looks like we are live. I'm George, co-founder of SoloSuit. Good to see you all. Glad to be doing this webinar today. We're going to be covering some of the basics on how to win your debt collection lawsuit. Welcome to Webinar Wednesday.

All right, so I'm going to go ahead and jump in to some of the basics here first and then we reserve most of the time for your questions. So we'll get in some Q and A in just a minute after that. Okay, so some of the basics on responding to a debt lawsuit.

So when you get sued for a debt, you get the Summons and Complaint. You get those guys. And then what you need to do is pretty much in every situation, you want to file an Answer document. All right? And that's the main thing that SoloSuit has helped people out with.

In most states you have like, on average, around 21 days to file an Answer. Sometimes it's as long as 30, 31 days, sometimes it's as short as 14 days, like in Texas. So you got to file that Answer. You have a deadline you want to file on time. You don't want to miss the deadline. If you don't file an Answer, you're going to lose your case. Guaranteed, you know, lose by default.

But most of the time, if you're a couple of days late in filing, the court's still going to accept the Answer document. There's no guarantee, but if you're like a few days late and the Answer is filed, the judge is usually going to accept that filing.

Then once you file an Answer, most people wonder, what do we do next? Because of that, we released our newer product called SoloSettle.

All right, so, SoloSettle… You can use SoloSettle to settle your lawsuit and get a nice and tidy resolution to your lawsuit. Most people that use SoloSuit are coming to us with credit card debt and they want to settle it, right? Some people, on the other hand, they come to us for fraudulent debt that they don't actually own anyway. They're like a victim of identity theft. They don't want to settle, they just want the case to get tossed out. That's great.

You can use our Answer documents to respond to the lawsuit. And a lot of the times, around 30% of the time, the case just gets dismissed. Then another 30% or so of the time people are settling these lawsuits. Okay? But for a lot of people, settlement is a good option and that's what they're looking for. All right?

And today I'm pleased to announce that we are currently testing out a premium version of SoloSettle. So SoloSetle premium, which is really exciting. Honestly, I thought it was a great thing before, but just recently I feel like I've been really realizing how great of a deal it is.

So, with SoloSettle Premium, you can make an offer to settle on our website and then we are actually partnering with a law firm and the law firm will complete the settlement for you. Okay. So they'll represent you in your lawsuit, plus they will move towards getting a settlement for you.

So, if you have filed an Answer and are wondering like, well, what do I do next? I'm not sure if I'm going to just win and the case is going to get dismissed and maybe I want to settle. SoloSettle Premium is definitely the thing for you.

You go on the website, answer the questions, and you click the link at the end to finish the process for Solicitable Premium. So, a great deal, you get a law firm completely representing you and they will act to get you a great settlement on the debt, hopefully saving you like 20% to 40% off the total amount of debt. So, if you're being sued for $10,000, they could save you $2,000. Big win. That's the general idea here.

I'm just going to jump into the questions. Looks like we have lots of folks watching the webinar tonight. Glad to see you guys. I'm just going to go ahead and get into the questions. And I don't think I mentioned it before, but we have our great team member Hannah, who's also responding in the chat. So she's going to respond to some questions through text in the chat.

Q&A section begins here

How should I respond to a Motion for Summary Judgment?

Viewer Question: After I submitted my Answer, the plaintiff attorney filed for a Motion for Summary Judgment on June 6. I received notification that the decision will be made on June 23. I'm in New Jersey. How do I respond?

George: All right, kind of like I was saying earlier, if you have interest in settling your lawsuit, best move is going to be to go on to SoloSettle Premium. Hannah's going to put the link into the chat and try that out. It is a beta service, meaning that we are exploring it. It's a little bit of a test run right now where I think it is a great product. If it was me, I would totally jump onto SoloSettle Premium. It's a great deal.

The partnering law firms reduce their cost significantly for our customers, and you really won't be able to find, like, a better deal for representation and settlement. But you do need to have an intent to settle the lawsuit to do that. And it sounds like you already filed an Answer. That's great.

And with a Motion for Summary Judgment, to resolve that, you have to respond to the Motion for Summary judgment. Right. So you have to make a counter motion and you got to make a counter motion and then file a memo in support of that motion. Otherwise, the summary judgment will likely be granted on behalf of the plaintiff.

You can read up on our blog. We have some articles on how to make a Motion for Summary Judgment. So you can try that out, and then you have to file that in court, and there'll probably be a hearing about the Motion for Summary Judgment that you have to show up to and tell the judge why they should grant summary judgment for you. The judge definitely should not give a summary judgment. Okay?

Summary judgment. What that means is that the judge would say that one party wins immediately without there actually being a trial right here. Definitely shouldn't happen in this case, especially if you've denied something in the Complaint, which you probably did, and you should have. The judge should hear the case and not give a summary judgment because you are disputing the facts of the case. So there you go.

So you can do all that on your own: file motion, counter motion memo, show for a hearing, or you can sign up for SoloSettle premium, have an attorney represent you, do all that for you, and ultimately settle your case for you and save you 20% to 40% something along those lines. All right, so those are a couple of options you have there.

Viewer Question: I received a response from the creditor from my Motion to Compel Arbitration asking the judge to have me pay for an arbitrator and to have to do it in 60 days. Should I respond or wait for the judge?

George: This is an important idea, an important series of events that happens in a lawsuit is one side files a motion, and then what happens next is the other side is supposed to file a counter motion. Ready? Sometimes it's called a motion to a motion opposed to the motion, but it's a counter motion.

Usually legal titles actually just have really literal, not plain English, it's like legalese, but really literal titles that are just saying what one side is asking the judge to do or like, what the document is.

So in this case, a motion is asking the judge to move or make a decision to do something. Okay, looks like he received a response from the creditor for the Motion to Compel Arbitration. So I guess I'd be curious to see exactly what that response was. It sounds like maybe it's a motion from the plaintiff, like a motion to pay for arbitration or something like that, requiring you to pay for the arbitration. Right.

Let's say the plaintiff in this case filed the motion for you to pay. What a lawyer would normally do is file a counter motion, and then if it's serious, then the plaintiff would also probably file a memo with the motion like some kind of a document outlining why they should win their case or that might just be included in the motion itself and then the counter motion.

You could also include a memo depending on the case. Again, maybe you can sometimes just put these things right into the motion itself. But the idea is like counter motion. You're asking the judge to rule in your favor that you shouldn't pay for the arbitration, and then you have like a memo or a series of reasons why they should rule in your favor.

So if you don't file a counter motion, or if you don't respond to the plaintiff, the judge is probably just going to grant whatever the plaintiff asked for. The judge isn't like a referee. The judge is really even more neutral than a referee. He just will work on whatever either of the parties bring up and serve to him. So if you aren't serving him a counter motion, he's not going to rule in your favor.

And the plaintiff is probably bringing this up because the contract probably says that they have to pay for arbitration and that's why they're even bringing that up in the first place because most contracts say that the plaintiff has to pay for arbitration. So it'll probably be, generally speaking, it'd be good for someone in your position to make a counter motion, say the plaintiff should pay.

Okay, before we get too far into this, I got to give my disclaimer. I'm not an attorney, I'm not a practicing lawyer. I'm not your attorney, SoloSuit is not a law firm. This isn't legal advice. Doesn't replace the advice of an attorney either. Just disseminating legal information here. So those are some disclaimers and there you go, moving on. I just say those things because of regulations in the space around practice of law.

How long does it take the court to file an Answer?

Viewer Question: The creditor explained in their Answer that I should pay for arbitration because they have already paid to litigate. Also, what happens when your Answer doesn't show filed yet, but it's been received by the court?

George: Sometimes courts just take a while to file stuff. They can take a long time. I think when last time I spoke with the New York courts a while ago and COVID was really happening, they said they were like a year behind on filing. They had received documents and they were about a year out before they were actually going to file anything. So that's New York courts, right? So courts can be quite behind on filing documents sometimes. Just depends.

Yeah, I'm not sure about the facts of your position, but to me that sounds like a fairly bogus argument from the plaintiff. Like just because they paid for litigation, you should pay for arbitration. That's not really how this works. It's not about dividing costs. Person that's bringing the lawsuit should pay for it because they're suing you for it. But then sometimes they'll make an arrangement where the loser pays for the fees. That seems pretty reasonable in some situations.

What should I do if I get sued by Cavalry?

Viewer Question: I was sued for a Macy’s credit card debt that was bought by Cavalry, and their attorney is suing me. What should I do?

George: Yeah, cool. Sounds like you'd be a great fit for SoloSettle Premium. Hannah, put that link in there so you can do that up. You are also going to want to fill out the form on SoloSuit.com. SoloSettle. Okay. If you haven't made an offer to settle already on SoloSettle, you go there, you fill that out, and then you go to this link that we've included, and then you finish the process there. A little bit confusing. It's a little bit of a work in progress right now. That's kind of how it works.

What happens if you lose a debt lawsuit?

Viewer Question: What if you lose? How do they collect?

George: Okay, sounds like you're asking, like, what if you lose the lawsuit? If you lose a lawsuit, the plaintiff files for garnishment. Usually it's called a writ of garnishment or execution of garnishment or something like that. They file that document in court, and then they send a letter to your employer, and then the employer writes them a check for the maximum amount. The federal allowed amount is 25% of your monthly income. And then your employer, instead of writing you a check, will send the check to the collector directly, and then they'll send you a smaller check. That's too bad.

If you don't have any wages, then they'll get a lien against your property, where if you sell your house in the future, then the full amount will go to pay them first rather than you. Right. So if it's $10,000 debt and they get a lien, $10,000 will go directly to the collector when you sell your house.

If you're trying to avoid them, then they can file a document requiring you with pretty serious repercussions if you don't do it, requiring you to tell them where you are employed. All right, moving on.

Viewer Question: I'm in Miami, Florida. I feel so stupid left I that paperwork at my office.

George: Well, at least here in Miami sounds like a good place to be. It sounds like pretty happening spot. Not sure what you mean by leaving the paperwork at your office. Don't know what you mean. But I guess when you go back to your office, maybe tomorrow, grab your paperwork and fill out your answer, get that done, or make an offer to sell.

Should I ask a debt collector how much they purchased my debt for?

Viewer Question: Am I able to question the debt collector on how much they purchased my debt for?

George: All right, so you got a question about a question? Let's see here. How much they purchased? Yeah. So sometimes in negotiations, I oftentimes say there's a series of questions in any negotiation that people don't think are askable if you're buying a car. Kind of the unaskable question is, well, how much did you buy this car for? Or like, how much do you think this car is worth? Or if you're getting a job, how much are you willing to pay me? What's the top of your range? Stuff like that.

So in this case, yeah, I mean, if I was negotiating a debt, I'd certainly ask, how much did you did you purchase the debt for? I would totally ask that question. Great question to ask. Are they going to answer that? Probably not. Does the person that you're talking to on the phone know how much they bought that for? Probably not.

Usually if you call these law firms, you're going to get, like, an hourly employee who didn't have anything to do with the purchase of the debt. But you can certainly ask. But our records show that usually if it's a debt buyer, they're usually buying it for around, like, 8%, maybe even less.

So if it's like Midland Funding, LVNV, or Cavalry, they probably bought your debt for about 8% of the face value of the debt, it doesn't mean that they're going to settle for that low. They have lots of costs. It's a risky business buying debts. They don't recover on everything. So it's not like they're just going to settle for, like, 9% because they bought it for 8%, just like that. They have costs, et cetera, in there. And there you go.

But it certainly is a point to anchor on while negotiating. If you want to settle, again, SoloSettle Premium is a great option. The attorneys at the law firm we're partnering with, they've been doing this for decades. They know all of the collectors personally hang out with them. They have, like, they know when their birthdays are, et cetera. Been talking to these guys for decades. So they'll be able to navigate the system much better than any of us, really, to get these things settled.

Watch the following video to learn more about how to settle a debt:

I am being sued by Midland Funding for multiple debts. Should
I request arbitration, settle, or go to court?

Viewer Question: Just served with a suit by Midland for five different accounts. Total $8,000. Any experience with this? Are they more or less likely to win? And with so many bundled together, would it be good or bad to require arbitration, settle, or go to court?

George: Wow. So it sounds like you're being sued. I don't know if you're being sued five times for five different accounts or five different accounts all in one lawsuit. Either way, feel for you. Sounds rough.

I would say that my answer may not surprise you that much, but I think settling sounds like a good option. Right. So you're going to want to first respond to the lawsuit. That buys you more time to do stuff. It gives you leverage to settle. They aren't going to settle unless you file an Answer, because they're just like, if we don't file an Answer, I'm just going to win. I'm going to snatch your wages and garnish you forever. Right.

So you got to file an Answer, and then you can settle. Certainly seems like a good option to settle, right? It's a debt buyer. Midland bought it for probably 8% of the face value of the $8,000, and they definitely settle lawsuits all the time. So I would go for SoloSettle premium here and just move that along.

If it's credit card debt and there's an arbitration clause, you can certainly consider arbitration. Where I'm leaning towards right now is just going down the settlement path, and arbitration isn't always the best option for that. I'll just go straight to SoloSettle after doing an Answer. All right.

Should I respond to my debt lawsuit by denying everything or filing a Motion to Compel Arbitration?

Viewer Question: What would be the best Answer to file in court to fight the case? Replying by denying due to lack of information or filing for a Motion to Compel Arbitration?

George: Okay, so an answer document is a capital a answer document, right? It is not simply a document that is filed in court. It's not simply like a letter. It's not simply a phone call. It's not like answering the lawsuit by making a phone call. An Answer document is a formal legal document, and it needs to be filed in court properly, needs to be sent to the opposing party as well to the lawyers that are suing it, and it needs to be formatted properly. It needs to be the proper layout, needs to have the proper content, et cetera.

I'm not sure, it sounds like you're asking like, can you answer by filing a Motion to Compel Arbitration? No, not really. Usually you Answer, that gives you time, and then after that, you can file a Motion to Compel Arbitration. Especially, a Motion to Compel Arbitration is probably best right now for getting the case dismissed, if that's what you want to do. If you feel like you owe the debt to some degree, I'll definitely lean more towards settlement.

Most lawyers are going to deny everything. I’ve never spoken to a lawyer who didn't say they would deny everything in the Complaint. You can maybe admit a couple of things like my name or my address or something like that, but they're going to deny or deny for lack of knowledge. All right.

If a debt buyer purchased my old debt, should I only pay them the same amount they paid?

Viewer Question: If a debt buyer purchased my old debt, should I only pay them the same amount they paid?

George: That totally seems reasonable. And personally, I don't feel like you have an ethical responsibility personally at this point in time to pay the full amount of the debt. The creditor knew the risk that they're getting into. They allotted for it in a contract.

Let's say you had $10,000 on a credit card debt, like legit debt. The creditor took that money, sold it to a debt buyer for $800. Like, do you owe the debt buyer $10,000? Like, morally or ethically? Personally, I certainly wouldn't think so because they only bought it for $800. And there you go. It's a risk that the creditor took upon themselves and you can't pay the creditor back, right?

No matter how much money you pay to the debt buyer, you're not going to make whole the creditor at this point in time. They just aren't going to accept your money. So that's kind of the situation you find yourself in.

What do I do if I’ve already passed the deadline to respond to my debt lawsuit?

Viewer Question: It's been 20 days already, I believe. I didn't see it anywhere in the paperwork whether to respond or answer to anyone. This is my first time going through this. I honestly don't know what to do.

George: Just stay calm, chill out. If the deadline is coming up or if it's already passed, you can still go on SoloSuit.com, and you can file an Answer. You can get it done.

Usually a judge will accept an Answer document up until there's a motion for default judgment filed or default judgment granted or something like that. If it's a couple of days late, the judge is probably going to accept it. Again, there's no guarantees. There's no guarantees. It's up to you to decide whether or not you want to go through with the Answer.

And SoloSuit doesn't guarantee results, right? So it's not like you can't use our service, file an answer, and then if it's like two months after your deadline, it's not easy to request a refund from us in that situation because we're out quite a bit of money, right? It costs us quite a bit of money to file the document for you, and we will get that document filed for you based on your instructions. But we aren't your lawyer. We're just filing the answer based on your instructions. So that's something to keep in mind.

But if we're me, I'd certainly still try to file an Answer. If the deadline was like a day past or something like that, I'd certainly try to file an Answer, and then I'd try to settle after that. Okay?

How can I check my case history?

Viewer Question: I used SoloSuit to respond to One Main Financial, but no answer from the court or law firm yet, but the county is already allowing them to garnish my wages. Any recommendations?

George: That sounds crazy. That does not sound legal. Basically, you want to check the docket of your case. So if you do, like, a Google search of your state plus case search SoloSuit, then you'll find one of our websites that link to the best resource to find your lawsuit online. So go ahead and do that.

Let's say you're in Tennessee. You search Tennessee Case Search SoloSuit. Find our blog article in Tennessee. Click on the link in there to do a case search for your case in Tennessee. Probably type in your case number, your last name, first name, find the case on the docket online. And then usually these websites, these court websites show you a docket.

So it'll show the Complaint and Summons with the date that is filed, and they'll show you the answers to the date that was filed. And it’ll show you the Motion for Default Judgment or the Motion for Summary Judgment and the date that was filed, et cetera. So you want to check on there, make sure that the court accepted your Answer document and got it filed appropriately, and then you can see what else has been happening there. Right?

So, if your Answer was filed, then there shouldn't be a default judgment granted. But maybe something else happened in your case that you didn't know about. Maybe the plaintiff filed for a hearing and then sent the notice of the hearing to your wrong address, something like that. That could happen. Maybe they filed a Motion for Summary Judgment they didn't hear about and then they got a judgment and then they're garnishing their wages.

Sometimes the collectors will file a proposed order or a proposed document without labeling it as such, as a method of intimidation. And they don't call it a method of intimidation. But certainly for us, we see that intimidating people, where it might be like an order for garnishment, it's actually just a proposed thing. It hasn't actually been signed by a judge.

So whatever document you see, you want to make sure that it's been signed by the judge or stamped by the court, something along those lines. If you did lose the case for some reason, you can always try filing a Motion to Set Aside Judgment so that would ask the judge to give you a second chance because you didn't get a fair shake in court. Also, you can try out SoloSettle premium. I think this might be a little bit late, but if you signed up, we could certainly look into it for you.

Or if you email us, we can see if the law firm that we partner with can help you out in that situation. All right.

How does SoloSuit’s premium package work?

Viewer Question: I signed up for the premium package, but I'm confused about what's next. I keep getting emails to upgrade to the premium package. I'd like to talk to someone on the phone if possible.

George: I'm here at the moment. It’s best if you email us at support@solicit.com Deja's our really good support person. That's what you're probably going to get. She’ll probably be able to answer that.

If you are on the premium package and that's what you paid for, then there's no reason to upgrade. You might have gotten an email to upgrade the SoloSettle premium. What you are on probably is the Debt Answer premium. Then, we have SoloSettle premium. Maybe that's what you got.

But generally speaking, most people want to settle if they owe some portion of the debt. If you don't owe anything, then just try to wait it out and win or get the case dismissed.

Viewer Question: I want to make it as painful as possible, and as expensive as possible, to go away.

George: That's what I'm talking about. It's hardcore. To arbitrate a case in California is basically $4,800. The debt is $4,900. Great. Yeah, that sounds like a fine path. That's a path a lot of people want to take. You can certainly increase costs and totally cases do get dismissed, right we're about to release a report from SoloSuit showing that around like 30% cases get dismissed, usually just by filing an Answer or compelling arbitration. And that's a big win. Basically without doing that stuff, like no cases get dismissed or ruled on favorably for the defendant.

Can you file a Motion to Compel Arbitration after your wages have been garnished?

Viewer Question: Can you arbitrate after garnishment has already started?

George: Probably not. You can file for Motion to set aside judgment, or you can file for an appeal, and then after that, if that's accepted, maybe you could try arbitrating. If the motion to set aside is granted, you can try to settle after garnishment.

Our service, I don't think is going to be the best. I'll have to check with our partnering law firm to see if they can settle after garnishment. I know some lawyers do that, and sometimes a collector will accept a lump sum over the payments of garnishment. So that is something to look into.

If the total debt is $5,000 and your wages are being garnished and you could pay $4,000 right now, maybe the law firms are going to take that all right now. Or if you could pay off the full amount right now, maybe they'd take that instead of doing garnishment. All right, Hannah, maybe put that SoloSettle Premium link in the chat again. We're over time, but I'm going to be just trying the rapid fire on these questions now.

What if a debt collector can’t validate my debt?

Viewer Question: When I set off for debt validation, in my letter, it says they need to provide me with my original contract, with my signature, as well as payment history, et cetera. What if they can't provide this?

George: Well, that’s the point of the Debt Validation Letter. So if they can't provide that, then they can't validate that they shouldn't collect on it and they should stop doing what they're doing. And just as a note, here, the place where the debt validation letter fits in is actually up here. So the debt validation letter is pre summons and complaints. So before you get sued, you can send a debt validation letter.

Generally speaking, it's in response to a collection letter. So it's a collection letter from the from the collector. Like, you receive a letter… It's not it's not a lawsuit. It's just like a letter saying, hey, owes this money. You say, no, I don't; prove it. Then you send them a Debt Validation Letter, and if they can validate they owe it, then maybe you should pay. If they can't, then there you go. Hopefully it just disappears and sometimes it'll proceed to a lawsuit. All right,

To learn more about how a Debt Validation Letter can help you beat debt collectors, check out this video:

Can a lien be put on your property?

Viewer Question: If a credit card is unsecured, why do they have the right to make a lien on your property?

George: I guess I'm not sure exactly what you're asking about there. I mean, just generally speaking, they have a right to get a lien. I'm not sure how that factors in with the credit card being unsecured. I guess maybe you're asking like, for unsecured debt, why can they get after your secured debt? Maybe. I'm not sure. That's just the way the law works.

When can debt collectors take money from your bank account?

Viewer Question: What type of circumstances do they take money directly from your bank account? Does that happen once or repeated?

George: Yes, that's usually what happens once you lose if you have wages, you have income and you lose one of these lawsuits, they're going to garnish your wages. About 4 million people get their wages garnished every year in the US. And usually it's ongoing. Right. So they'll take the maximum that they're allowed? Depends on the state, depends on the circumstances. But, like, the maximum across the US is 25% of your gross income, I believe. I think it's pre tax. Not sure.

And yeah, look at it every month until the total amount of the debt is paid. During that period of time, post judgment interest will be applied as well as the regular interest. So this is huge interest. Like, a snowball is going to be happening. It's going to be bad news. You definitely want to try to settle or win your lawsuit without having that garnishment happen. But people do get garnished, and people survive. I've talked to a guy who is getting garnished all the time. He's cool. That was just his way of life. He's like, yes, riding off 25% of my income for the rest of forever. I'm just planning on it.

What if the statute of limitations is up on your debt?

Viewer Question: If the motion to stay is granted and the statute of limitations exceeds the collection by date, can they still come after your motion to stay?

George: No. I mean, if the motion to stay is granted, I don't see why. So just everyone knows a motion to stay after the court has entered a judgment, you can ask the court to delay enforcement or stay judgment. This is done by filing a motion to delay enforcement of judgment or motion to stay. I assume that's the type of motion to stay that you're talking about.

I think it might be used in another situation as well. So the statute of limitations you can use our handy statute of limitations calculator to find out if the statute of limitations has expired on your debt. You can just search that phrase statute limitations calculator on SoloSuit, on Google. You can find that.

The key thing to know here is that there's statute of limitations for credit card debt in your state. It might be it's like, six years, and then there's statute of limitations for judgments. If you have a motion to stay judgment, then that means that there's probably a judgment against you. And the statute of limitations now probably applies to the judgment, not to the credit card debt judgment. Statute of limitations on a judgment is usually oftentimes like, ten to 20 years, and they're infinitely renewable.

Usually when it expires, they can just renew it. And there you go. So that's kind of the thing to know there. So they're probably operating off of the judgment statute of limitations. All right, so statute of limitations. You also have a credit card statute of limitations as a different option.

Can I settle my debt with monthly payments or a lump-sum payment?

Viewer Question: When you settle, do you make monthly payments, or is it one lump sum? How does that work right now?

George: So, good news. Right now, we're actually accepting monthly payments. So if you want to settle for monthly payments, we can totally work that out for you with SoloSettle Premium. It's not an option of regular SoloSettle. If you want to do monthly payments, we can set those up for you on SoloSettle Premium. And there you go.

A default judgment was entered in my case, but I never knew I was being sued. What should I do?

Viewer Question: I got an email saying that I have a default judgment from Nevada. I moved to Florida and never received anything about it. What should I do?

George: So that's a kind of classic situation, unfortunately. Very sorry to hear. You are a victim of what is known as sewer service. So the collector served you at the wrong address. You never found out about the lawsuit until you lost it.

Interestingly, collectors are much better at finding people after they lose lawsuits than before when they have to serve them. Not sure why that is, but in your situation, you can file a Motion to Set Aside Judgment because you never filed an Answer. You can try that.

Judges should accept those, and then you can file an Answer, and if it's accepted, and then you can try to settle the lawsuit. There you go. I'm just moving on for time's sake here.

What is the statute of limitations on medical debt?

Viewer Question: I’m being garnished for a 2011 medical bill for my daughter that I didn't know about. Also did not know about statute of limitations. What should I do?

George: Statute limitations on medical debt is sometimes shorter than other types of debt. Sometimes it's not. And medical debt usually is erasable in bankruptcy just, by the way, wrapping up here.

Find your state’s statute of limitations.

Who has to pay for arbitration fees?

Viewer Question: I filed a Motion to Compel Arbitration with SoloSuit, and it was granted. Can I file another motion for Discover Bank to advance the arbitration fees?

George: So you want to file a motion to advance the arbitration fees? I'm not exactly sure about those details. I don't know. It depends on the situation. Depends on court jurisdiction. You can certainly try filing a document and then see what happens in the case. We don't help with that kind of document. Most people, when they file a Motion to Compel Arbitration, they just kind of wait and see what happens next, hoping that the plaintiff was just going to drop it.

Does SoloSuit help with mediation and arbitration?

Viewer Question: Can you help with court mediation and arbitration?

George: You can use our Motion to Compel Arbitration and file that, and those will get granted quite a bit. Besides that, we don't really help. We have some information on our blog that you can use, et cetera.

When does the clock on the statute of limitations begin?

Viewer Question: Does a credit card debt start when you use the credit card the first time or when you fail to pay the debt?

George: Seems like a very philosophical question. More so than normal here. This is the last question I'm going to take here.

I mean, credit card is debt. Once you start using your credit, you have a form of debt. So I'd say that the debt itself begins once you make first payment on the credit card. If not that, then once you don't pay off the full balance after the first month. Right.

And then once you don't pay the debt, if you miss a payment, then you have a delinquent debt. You're late on paying your debt. Just a tip. What I do with my credit cards, a lot of people that I know that are good with their money do with their credit cards is they get a credit card because it's helpful to have a credit score, and then they just pay the balance in full every month.

So if you have a credit card, buy $500 worth of stuff in a month, then you pay off the full $500 in that month or before the amount is due. So you never have like, a rolling balance, just accruing interest over time. So that's a way to do it.

You might consider just putting, like, a basic bill, like your cell phone bill and your credit card and just having that auto paid every month and having that be the only thing that you buy with your credit card, because you don't want that balance to be 30% of the credit limit, because that will hurt your credit score. So if you have a $10,000 limit, you never want to have a higher balance than $3,000 on your credit card.

SoloSuit is rooting for you

All right, folks, there you go. Those are my thoughts for today. Glad we can help you out. Okay. I'm George with SoloSuit. Thank you to our full team at SoloSuit. I love all you guys doing great work. Thank you to our customers. Thanks for coming to us. Glad we can help you. Remember, we want you to win. We definitely want you to win your lawsuit. If you've been sued for debt, file an Answer, use SoloSettle premium, get that thing settled, or just hope that it gets dismissed if you don't owe the debt. All right, those are my main thoughts. Good to see you all. Probably going to be doing this next week for Webinar Wednesdays.

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Guides on how to beat every debt collector

Being sued by a different debt collector? Were making guides on how to beat each one.

• Absolute Resolutions Investments LLC
• Accredited Collection Services
• Alliance One
• Amcol Clmbia
• American Recovery Service
• Asset Acceptance LLC
• Asset Recovery Solutions
• Associated Credit Services
• Autovest LLC
• Cach LLC
• Cavalry SPV I LLC
• Cerastes LLC
• Colinfobur
• Covington Credit
• Crown Asset Management
• CTC Debt Collector
• Cypress Financial Recoveries
• Delanor Kemper & Associates
• Eagle Loan of Ohio
• Educap
• Estate Information Services
• FIA Card Services
• Forster & Garbus
• Freshview Solutions
• Fulton Friedman & Gullace LLP
• Harvest Credit Management
• Howard Lee Schiff
• Hudson & Keyse LLC
• Integras Capital Recovery LLC
• Javitch Block
• Jefferson Capital Systems LLC
• LVNV Funding
• Mannbracken
• Mariner Finance
• Medicredit
• Michael J Adams PC
• Michael J Scott
• Midland Funding LLC
• Mullooly, Jeffrey, Rooney & Flynn
• Mountain Land Collections
• MRS Associates
• National Collegiate Trust
• Nationstar Foreclosure
• Northstar Capital Acquisition
• NCEP LLC
• NRC Collection Agency
• OneMain Financial
• Palisades Collection LLC
• Pallida LLC
• Paragon Revenue Group
• Pinnacle Collections Agency
• PMAB LLC
• Portfolio Recovery Associates
• Provest Law
• PYOD LLC
• Reunion Student Loan Finance Corporation
• Revenue Group
• Regents and Associates
• RSIEH
• Salander Enterprises LLC
• Second Round Sub LLC
• Security Credit Services
• Sherman Financial Group
• Suttell and Hammer
• T-Mobile
• Transworld Systems
• Tulsa Teachers Credit Union
• UCB Collection
• Velo Law Office
• Velocity Investments
• Waypoint Resource Group
• Weinberg and Associates
• Wolpoff & Abramson

Win against credit card companies

Is your credit card company suing you? Learn how you can beat each one.

• Bank of America
• Capital One
• Chase
• Credit One Bank
• PayPal Synchrony Card
• SYNCB/PPEXTR
• Synchrony Bank
• Target National Bank
• Wells Fargo

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