George Simons is the co-founder and CEO of SoloSuit. He has helped Americans protect over $1 billion from predatory debt lawsuits. George graduated from BYU Law school in 2020 with a JD-MBA. In his spare time, George likes to cook, because he likes to eat.
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: Are you being sued by a bill collector for an old debt? Not sure how to respond? Here's a sample answer to a Summons for a credit card debt lawsuit.
When you've been sued over a credit card debt, the plaintiff usually hopes that you'll ignore the lawsuit. Unfortunately, ignoring the lawsuit means the court will pass a default judgment against you, awarding the plaintiff legal authority to pursue other debt collection methods such as wage garnishment to recover the amount you supposedly owe.
The worst part of a default judgment is that it usually awards the plaintiff authority to pursue the debt even if you don't owe the amount stated or the entire debt. By failing to respond to the Summons, the court assumes that you owe the indicated amount and grants the plaintiff permission to recover it within the state's legal parameters.
But how do you respond to such a lawsuit, especially if it's your first time? First things first, it's essential to understand the elements of an answer document.
An answer document for a credit card lawsuit contains the following elements:
SoloSuit's Answer template contains each of the elements listed above. In fact, you can fill out your own Answer on SoloSuit's website in as little as 15 minutes. All you have to do is answer a few questions, and an autmomatic Answer will be genereated for you. Here's an example:
It's important to note that the contents of the answer document vary depending on the response you opt for, but the format remains pretty much the same. When answering a Summons for a credit card debt lawsuit, you can either accept, deny the complaint, or accept in part.
Another thing you need to remember is that you need to state all your affirmative defenses in your answer document, even if some don't make sense. This is because once you've submitted the answer document, you can't use another affirmative defense if it wasn't initially listed in the answer document, even if you forgot to list it down earlier.
Besides knowing how to write an answer to a Summons for credit card debt, it's also important to find out the deadline for filing this document. Each state has its own deadline, which you must strictly adhere to or risk losing the lawsuit to the plaintiff.
Alternatively, you can use SoloSuit to file an attorney-approved answer within 15 minutes, saving you time and energy while guaranteeing peace of mind.
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.
"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
You can ask your questions on the SoloSuit forum and the community will help you out. Whether you need help now or are just looking for support, we're here for you.
Here's a list of guides for other states.
Being sued by a different debt collector? We're making guides on how to beat each one.
Is your credit card company suing you? Learn how you can beat each one.
Need more info on statutes of limitations? Read our 50-state guide.
