Someone hands you a summons. A credit card company — or a collector you've never heard of — is suing you. The papers read like the outcome is already decided.
It isn't. The whole business model behind these lawsuits depends on one thing: you doing nothing. People who respond and push back win or settle far more often than the paperwork would ever suggest. This is your game plan.
The one thing you cannot do: nothing
Let's get the biggest danger out of the way first.
Ignore the lawsuit, and the collector wins by default judgment. They don't prove you owe anything. They don't show the court one document. They just show you were served and never answered, and the judge grants the win.
A judgment turns a scary letter into real damage:
- Wage garnishment — in Arizona, up to roughly 25% of your disposable earnings.
- A bank levy that pulls money straight out of your account.
- A lien against property you own.
- Growing interest, and a judgment that can be renewed for years.
And here's what should make you angry: most of these lawsuits end in default not because the collector had proof, but because the person sued froze. Plenty of collectors couldn't back up their claims if anyone made them try. Silence hands them a victory they never earned.
So the rule is simple: respond. Always. Even a basic answer, filed on time, changes the entire case.
Protect the deadline first
Look at your summons. In Arizona you generally have 20 days from the day you were served to respond — but read your own papers, because the deadline and the court can differ. That date is now the most important date in your life. Write it down before you do anything else. Blow past it and you're back in default-judgment territory.
Know your opponent
Now read the lawsuit closely. Who filed it?
- Is it the original creditor — the actual bank that issued your card?
- Or is it a debt buyer — a company that purchased your old account for pennies on the dollar? Watch for names like Midland Funding, Portfolio Recovery, LVNV, and Cavalry.
The difference is huge. Debt buyers purchase accounts in bulk, sometimes with nothing behind them but a spreadsheet row. When it's time to prove they own your specific debt, or that the balance is right, many of them can't do it.
File your Answer
Calling the collector is not a response. The only response that counts is a written Answer, filed with the court before the deadline.
In the Answer, you reply to each thing the company suing you claims. Here's the part people miss: you don't have to accept their word on anything. Is the balance right? Does this company really own the account? Is the math correct? If you don't personally know something is true, the rules let you deny it — or say you don't have enough information to admit or deny it.
Filing that one document ends the "free win." From that point on, they have to work.
Then put the burden where it belongs — on them
You don't have to prove you don't owe the money. The collector has to prove you do. That usually means producing:
- A signed agreement, or evidence you opened and used the account.
- Statements showing how the balance was built.
- If the debt was sold — often more than once — a complete chain of ownership from the original bank to them.
You can demand these records through the court process. This is exactly where debt-buyer cases tend to collapse: the paperwork just isn't there, especially after the account changed hands a few times.
Check the calendar on the debt itself
There's a time limit on suing. Arizona's statute of limitations for credit card debt is six years (A.R.S. § 12-548). And in Mertola, LLC v. Santos, the Arizona Supreme Court held that the clock generally starts at your first missed payment that you never made up — not your last payment, and not when the account was sold.
A lawsuit filed outside that window is "time-barred," which can defeat the whole case. But the court won't check this for you. You have to raise it in your Answer. One more reason silence is so expensive.
Look for law-breaking by the collector
Third-party collectors are bound by a federal law called the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA). Harassment, lying about the balance, threatening actions they can't legally take, suing on a time-barred debt — all of these can violate it. A violation gives you leverage, and sometimes a counterclaim — meaning you sue them back inside the same case.
Two mistakes that quietly hurt you
- Admitting the debt or sending a partial payment. In some situations, that can restart the statute of limitations — reviving a case they had already lost to time.
- Making deals on the phone with nothing in writing. If you settle, every term goes on paper before a single dollar moves.
The safe habit: say less, and put everything in writing.
Pick your path
With the deadline protected, you have three real choices:
- Defend the case. Force them to prove ownership and the balance. This is strongest against debt buyers with thin files, or when the debt is too old.
- Settle it. Once a collector sees you'll make them work, a fraction of the balance often gets it done. Written agreement only.
- File bankruptcy. When this lawsuit is one of several debts crushing you, bankruptcy can erase the debt and freeze the case through the automatic stay. For some people it's the cleanest reset available.
Which path is right turns on the facts: who sued, how old the account is, what proof they hold, and what else you're carrying.
They're betting you'll fold. Don't.
Collection lawsuits are a volume game built on fear. Thousands get filed on the assumption that almost no one answers. Be the exception — file on time, demand the proof, raise your defenses — and the odds shift hard in your direction.
You can do this yourself, one step at a time.
