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Chloe Meltzer is an experienced content writer specializing in legal content creation. She holds a degree in English Literature from Arizona State University, complemented by a Master’s in Marketing from California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo.

Edited by Hannah Locklear

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Hannah Locklear, BA

Hannah Locklear is SoloSuit’s Marketing and Impact Manager. With an educational background in Linguistics, Spanish, and International Development from Brigham Young University, Hannah has also worked as a legal support specialist for several years.

Summary: Has D&A Services contacted you about a past-due debt? SoloSuit can help you take a stand and win in court.

If you are months or more past due on a debt, your creditor may assign or sell the debt to a third-party debt collection agency. At this time, the debt collector may purchase your debt and then work to collect the debt or be paid to collect on the debt. If you do not pay off the debt, you may find yourself in court. If you are being sued for debt by D&A Service and not sure how to respond, you can follow the steps below to win.

Who is D&A Services?

Previously known as Dynia & Associates, D&A Services, LLC is a third-party debt collector based in Illinois. This agency has a rating of 1 out of 5 stars with the Better Business Bureau, and it has received several consumer complaints on the BBB website. Some of these complaints are clearly violations of the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act (FDCPA), including failing to verify debts and using false or misleading language in an effort to collect a debt. If you have been contacted by D&A, you must know your rights and how to respond.

Steps to take if you are sued by D&A Services

Understand the timeline of a debt collection lawsuit

If you're being sued by a debt collector, then you need to understand the process of what being sued for debt looks like. It will vary from case to case, but you need to ensure that you verify the debt before paying anything. Scams do exist, so it's important to do some research on the debt before you take any other action. Here's a typical debt collection timeline:

After 180 days of the debt being past due, you may receive a call from a debt collector.
Within five days of initial contact, the collector must send written verification of the debt, which provides additional information about the debt (i.e. the amount you owe, the name of the creditor, and how to dispute the debt if you wish to do so). If they do not send this, then you can request one by sending a Debt Validation Letter.
The collector must validate the debt or stop collection efforts. If they cannot validate the debt, then they must leave you alone.
You have 30 days to dispute the debt if you feel that any of the information from the collector's debt verification letter is inaccurate, otherwise, the debt is considered valid.
If the collector succeeds in validating the debt and you cannot dispute it or pay it off, they can take the issue to court and file a Summons and Complaint against you.
Once the lawsuit is initiated, you have 14-30 days to respond before the case enters default judgment.
You should respond to the lawsuit with a written Answer.

Check out this handy flowchart that outlines all the possible routes a debt lawsuit can take:

Debt Collection Lawsuit Flowchart

Make sure the debt is valid before the lawsuit begins

It's pretty common for debt collection agencies like D&A Services to try to collect on a debt that is invalid. Some reasons a debt may be considered invalid are:

It is past the statute of limitations
The amount is incorrect
The debt has already been paid off
It is a fraudulent debt

If you feel that any of these apply to your debt, you can send a Debt Validation Letter. Many collectors simply give up after receiving a Debt Validation Letter, so it's a great way to get D&A Services off your back.

SoloSuit can help you draft your own Debt Validation Letter in minutes.

Respond to a lawsuit against D&A Services

If D&A Services has sent you a debt Summons and Complaint, you should respond before the deadline in order to avoid default judgment. Default Judgment would give D&A Services the right to garnish your wages and seize your property. You can dodge this by filing a written Answer with the court.

Draft a written Answer in response to the Complaint

The Complaint document that you should have received from the court will contain a list of allegations against you (these are often referred to as “paragraphs”). In order to fight back in your debt lawsuit, you should prepare a formal response to each of these allegations. There are a few ways you can respond to each point in a Complaint. You can:

Admit: This is like stating that you agree with the allegation..
Deny: This is like stating that the allegation is false or that you refuse to admit it before the court.
Deny due to lack of knowledge: This is like stating, “I don't know,” which can be a good option if you don't understand the legal jargon in the Complaint.

Generally, the best tactic is to deny everything in your response. At this stage in a lawsuit, the burden of proof is on the plaintiff (or in this case, D&A Services). Denying everything is like saying “prove it”, which takes more time, effort, and resources on D&A's part. They might even give up, if they don't think the amount in question is worth the time they'd spend proving their case.

Assert your affirmative defenses

As a part of your written Answer, you should include a list of affirmative defenses that will strengthen your side of the case. Be sure to list these defenses in your Answer, because you will not be able to bring them up later. Some common affirmative defenses include:

The account with the debt is not your account
The contract was already canceled
The statute of limitations has expired (the statute of limitations is the amount of time you can be sued for a debt, it is usually 4 to 6 years)
The debt has been paid or excused
The debt has been partially paid

Make the right defense the right way with SoloSuit.

For 6 easy tips on drafting an Answer to a debt lawsuit, check out this video:

File the Answer with the court

After drafting your Answer, and asserting your affirmative defenses, you should file the original document with the court and send a copy of it to D&A Services' lawyer. SoloSuit can file the Answer for you and have an attorney review your documents before sending to increase your chances of winning.

Beat D&A Services

If you are being sued by D&A Services, it is important to look at all aspects of the lawsuit. The most important thing to remember is never to admit responsibility for the debt. If you do this, you will lose all chances to fight it or settle the debt for less than you owe. You can represent yourself with SoloSuit's help and beat D&A Services in court.

What is SoloSuit?

SoloSuit makes it easy to respond to a debt collection lawsuit.

How it works: SoloSuit is a step-by-step web-app that asks you all the necessary questions to complete your answer. Upon completion, you can either print the completed forms and mail in the hard copies to the courts or you can pay SoloSuit to file it for you and to have an attorney review the document.

Respond with SoloSuit

"First time getting sued by a debt collector and I was searching all over YouTube and ran across SoloSuit, so I decided to buy their services with their attorney reviewed documentation which cost extra but it was well worth it! SoloSuit sent the documentation to the parties and to the court which saved me time from having to go to court and in a few weeks the case got dismissed!" – James

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