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Sued by Debt Collector? How to Resolve Your Debt

Sarah Edwards | February 23, 2024

Sarah Edwards
Legal Expert
Sarah Edwards, BS

Sarah Harris is a professional researcher and writer specializing in legal content. An Emerson College alumna, she holds a Bachelor of Science in Communication from the prestigious Boston institution.

Edited by Hannah Locklear

Hannah Locklear
Editor at SoloSuit
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: If you’ve been sued by a debt collector, you can resolve the matter by following these three steps: Answer the lawsuit ASAP, negotiate a debt settlement with the collector, and pay the settlement as agreed. SoloSuit can help with all this and more.

Dodging debt collectors might work for a time. But eventually, collectors will decide they’ve had enough. If their calls, texts, emails, and letters aren’t getting results, they figure the legal system will.

Once a debt collector has filed a lawsuit against you, you need to act quickly. There may still be time to resolve your debt! Here’s how.

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Why do debt collectors sue?

You don’t need to worry about a debt collector suing you the second they get your debt. Debt collectors usually only sue consumers as a last resort. In order to get sued, you would need to ignore several debt notices over a long period of time.

Generally speaking, it’s a lot less stressful to resolve your debt before the collector sues you. However, there’s still hope for resolving debt after a lawsuit — you just need to act fast!

Follow these steps to resolve your debt

If you’ve been sued, you should get two documents in the mail or handed to you in person. One is a Summons, and the other is a Complaint (also called a Petition in some states). The Summons informs you that the collector is suing you, and the Complaint goes into all the details of why.

Step 1: Answer the lawsuit as soon as possible

This is a critically important step. If you want to have any hope of negotiating your debt, you must respond to the lawsuit by your state’s deadline. These deadlines usually range from 14 to 30 days after it is filed.

To respond to the lawsuit, you have to fill out and file a form called an Answer. Your Answer informs the debt collector that you want to fight the lawsuit.

Filling out the Answer form can be tough if you have no legal experience. And if you don’t file it correctly, you might lose your lawsuit by default.

SoloSuit can help you complete and file your Answer. You’ll have your Answer done in three simple steps:

  • You answer a few questions about your situation.
  • An attorney reviews your information for accuracy.
  • The SoloSuit software fills out, formats, and files your Answer for you.

Don’t miss your state’s deadline! Get started on your Answer right now.

Step 2: Negotiate with the collector

Filing an Answer into the case buys you some more time before the lawsuit progresses. Once your Answer has been filed, you can start negotiating a settlement with the collector.

As long as the two of you can agree on an amount, debt collectors are practically guaranteed to accept a settlement. Why? Lawsuits are expensive, and if yours makes it to the inside of a courtroom, the debt collector will have to pay attorney fees, court costs, and more.

If they reach a settlement with you, they can still recoup most of the debt without paying for an actual trial.

But how do you start negotiating? A good rule of thumb is to start by offering to pay 60% of the debt if the collector drops the suit. It might take a few rounds of negotiations, but if you and the collector can agree on an amount, it’ll save you from having a court judgment filed against you.

To better understand the negotiation process, it might help to consider an example.

Example: Charles receives a Summons and Complaint in the mail telling him he’s being sued for a $5,000 medical debt. To avoid a default judgment, Charles looks up his state’s deadline to file an Answer. He uses SoloSuit to file an Answer as soon as possible. The Answer stops the debt collector from winning by default, but Charles needs to start negotiations before the lawsuit progresses any further. Charles wants to do everything he can to settle his debt for less than the original amount, so he decides to use SoloSettle. With SoloSettle, Charles starts by offering to pay 60% of the debt ($3,000) right away if the collector drops the lawsuit. Charles and the collector go back and forth a few times, and they finally agree on 65% of the original amount (or $3,250).


Don’t face debt collectors alone. Start negotiating with SoloSettle!

Step 3: Pay the settlement as agreed

You might breathe a sigh of relief once you’ve reached a settlement agreement. But don’t celebrate just yet! It’s not over until you’ve paid the collector the amount you agreed on.

Payment logistics can be a real pain to figure out. Fortunately, if you use SoloSettle, we’ll facilitate the payment to make this last step smooth and easy.

What happens if you don’t do anything?

Many people just ignore debt and hope it goes away. It might seem like an effective tactic initially, but it’s not a smart strategy when facing a lawsuit. If you ignore the Summons and Complaint, there’s an almost 100% chance that the court will make a default judgment against you.

A default judgment essentially means you automatically lose the case because you didn’t challenge the lawsuit. You absolutely want to avoid getting a default judgment.

Ordinarily, debt collectors don’t have the authority to garnish your wages, seize your property, or take money from your bank account. However, if there’s a court judgment against you, all of that changes.

You may have part of your paycheck taken or even have a portion of what you owe pulled from your bank account. While there are limits on the amount that can be taken at one time, having money taken from you can cause significant financial stress.

Let SoloSuit help you resolve your debt

A lawsuit from a debt collector is a last call to resolve your debt. The legal complexity and time pressure of responding to a lawsuit can be stressful, but you don’t have to navigate it alone. When you use SoloSuit to file an Answer and negotiate a settlement, you can avoid a court judgment, end your debt, and start fresh with a clean slate.

Watch this video for six helpful tips on drafting an Answer to your debt lawsuit:

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