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Sued by Works and Lentz? Here's How to Respond

Sarah Edwards | January 24, 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: Dealing with a debt collection lawsuit can be harrowing. But if you have a plan in place, you can make it through unscathed. Let SoloSuit show you how to navigate a debt collection lawsuit from Works and Lentz.

Getting a call from a debt collector is bad enough, but receiving a notice that you’ve been sued for a debt can be downright terrifying. It’s understandable to want to panic, throw away the notice, and forget it ever happened. However, that’s probably the worst thing you can do.

If you’ve been sued by Works and Lentz, keep reading to learn how to respond and settle your debt.

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What is Works and Lentz?

You’re probably already familiar with debt collection agencies. But there’s another kind of collections company out there, too — debt collection law firms. If you go long enough without paying a debt collector, the collector will often sue you. They can’t do that without an attorney — and that is where debt collection law firms come in.

Works and Lentz is a debt collection law firm, and it’s one of the more established ones. It was founded in 1990 and has one office in Oklahoma City and one in Tulsa.

As of January 2024, Work and Lentz is not accredited by the Better Business Bureau (BBB), and it has no reviews and very few complaints on its BBB profile. On the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) complaint database, there were dozens of complaints listed against Works and Lentz.

Many complaints against Works and Lentz claimed the company tried to collect debts the consumer didn’t actually owe. Some also alleged that Works and Lentz was unable or unwilling to verify debts.

As a law firm, Works and Lentz can send you a notice of a lawsuit against you. However, you should look closely at anything the company sends you, as it may not even be related to a lawsuit. A quick look at its website shows that it offers more collection services than just lawsuits, including:

  • Collections.
  • Insurance follow-up.
  • Skip tracing.
  • Post-judgment collections.
  • Legal collections.

In other words, if you get a letter from Works and Lentz, don’t automatically assume it’s a lawsuit. It could just be a letter asking you to pay the debt.

Here’s what to do if you’ve been sued by Works and Lentz

How do you know if you’ve been sued? Fortunately, if you’ve been sued by Works and Lentz in Tulsa, you’ll know. You’ll receive two documents in the mail or served to you directly: a Petition and a Summons. The Summons tells you someone is suing you, and the Petition tells you why.

In Oklahoma, you have only 20 days to respond to a Summons and a Petition. It’s a tight turnaround, but it’s absolutely essential that you respond.

Why? In most cases, if you fail to respond within the given timeframe, the court enters a judgment against you. This means that Works and Lentz wins the case by default, and you’re stuck with a judgment against you that says you owe whatever it is they decided you did. Let’s look at an example.

Example: Quinn gets a Summons and Petition from Works and Lentz in OKC saying she’s being sued for $500. She sees that the filing date is February 1, so Quinn knows she has until February 21 to respond. Quinn doesn’t file by then, so the court rules that she must pay the $500 to Works and Lentz in OKC. If she had used SoloSuit to respond, should could have avoided the default judgment and worked out a debt settlement.


You might think that if this happens, you can continue to not pay the debt. That unfortunately may not be possible. With a judgment against you, Works and Lentz can likely garnish your wages or even have money taken out of your bank account.

The worst part is that once you have a judgment, you can no longer dispute the debt or set up a payment plan.

Respond to your lawsuit notice fast with SoloSuit.

Draft and file your answer

An Answer is an official document that essentially tells the court you intend to fight the lawsuit. There are three steps you need to take to draft and file yours.

1. Respond to each allegation

When you respond, you can admit or deny each allegation made against you. You can also admit or deny with an added explanation. For example, if the Complaint says you refused to pay a medical bill, you could admit it but explain you only refused because you’d just lost your job.

2. List affirmative defenses

You can point out the reasons why Works and Lentz doesn’t have a case against you when you list affirmative defenses. Many lawsuits use the affirmative defenses of payment (claiming you already paid) or the statute of limitations (the time limit for you to be sued for the debt has run out).

There are many affirmative defenses you can use under Oklahoma law.

3. File and serve

The final step is simple. You just need to file one copy with the court and send one copy to Works and Lentz in Tulsa or Oklahoma City, depending on which office is suing you.

SoloSuit can file your Answer for you.

Make it easy with SoloSuit

Unless you have extensive legal experience, preparing and filing a legal document can be extremely stressful. Fortunately, SoloSuit helps you do it quickly in three steps:

  • You answer a few questions about your case.
  • A specialized attorney reviews your case.
  • We complete your Answer document, file it with the court, and serve it to the person suing you.

In many cases, a law firm will simply drop your case after receiving an Answer. After all, many people just ignore the Summons and lose by default. It’s a lot easier for the law firm to collect on default judgments from these people than it is to fight the handful of people who actually file an Answer.

Sued? Let SoloSuit help!

Whether you’re facing a debt collection lawsuit or are just looking at how to remove Works and Lentz from your credit report, dealing with debt is overwhelming. SoloSuit takes the guesswork out of the process and helps you resolve debt and get on with your life.

Draft and file an Answer in minutes with SoloSuit — start now!

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