Sued by a Debt Buyer? Here Is What Is Really Going On and What You Can Do About It.
If you’ve been sued by a company you’ve never heard of, chances are you’re dealing with a debt buyer. These are companies that purchase old, defaulted accounts from credit card companies and other original creditors for a fraction of their face value, sometimes as little as three to five cents on the dollar. Names like LVNV Funding, Midland Funding, and Portfolio Recovery Associates are among the most active debt buyers filing suit in Missouri courts. The law firms that file on their behalf, including firms like Gamash & Meyers and Blitt & Gaines, process enormous volumes of collection cases every month.
Here’s what most people don’t know. When these companies sue you, they often can’t prove their case. The debt has been bought and sold, sometimes multiple times, and the documentation trail is weak. Original contracts, complete account histories, and clear chain of ownership records are frequently missing or incomplete. Under Missouri law, the plaintiff has the burden of proving the debt is valid, proving the amount is accurate, and proving they have the legal right to collect it. When they can’t do that, cases get dismissed.
The problem is that most people don’t fight back. They ignore the lawsuit, miss court, and lose by default. Or they show up to court, feel overwhelmed, and sign a consent judgment on the spot without understanding what they’re agreeing to. Either way, the debt buyer gets exactly what they wanted without ever having to prove a thing.
At Boevingloh & Pliakos, we’ve been defending Missouri consumers against debt buyer lawsuits for over 20 years. We know how these cases work, we know the companies and law firms involved, and we know how to build the kind of pressure that gets cases dismissed. We generally handle cases where the amount being sued for is above $1,000, and most of our cases fall under $25,000, which puts them in Missouri’s associate circuit court. We work on flat fees so you know your cost upfront, and in many cases our clients pay nothing back, or significantly less than the amount they were sued for. One practical benefit of getting started early is timing. If you hire us at least two weeks before your first court date, we can generally ensure you won’t need to appear at that first hearing yourself. Keep in mind that in Missouri, a sheriff or process server only needs to deliver the summons to you or someone in your household as few as 10 days before your first court date, so the window can be surprisingly short. If a spouse or family member was served and you only found out days later, that time pressure is very real. Call us for a free phone consultation and let’s talk through your situation.
Key Takeaways
- Debt buyers like LVNV Funding, Midland Funding, and Portfolio Recovery Associates frequently cannot prove their cases in Missouri court because the paper trail is incomplete.
- Most collection cases are filed by law firms like Gamash & Meyers and Blitt & Gaines that process hundreds of cases at a time. Fighting back changes the equation.
- We work on flat fees. The fee is $200 per month for three months, or $550 paid upfront. Payment plans are available.
- In many cases our clients pay nothing back, or resolve the case for significantly less than the original amount. The goal is always the best possible outcome for you.
- Do not sign a consent judgment without speaking to an attorney. It surrenders most of your rights and opens the door to garnishment and bank levies.
Who Is Actually Suing You and Why It Matters
Understanding who filed the lawsuit against you is the first step in building a defense. Most consumers assume the company suing them is the original creditor they borrowed money from. In the vast majority of cases, it isn’t.
How Debt Gets Sold
When you default on a credit card or other consumer account, the original creditor typically attempts collection for a period of time. After about six months of nonpayment, the account is charged off. Charge off is an accounting term, not a forgiveness of the debt. It simply means the creditor has written the account off their books as an unlikely collectible asset. The debt itself remains valid.
After charge off, the creditor typically sells the account to a debt buyer. These sales happen in bulk, with millions of dollars worth of defaulted accounts selling for pennies on the dollar. The debt buyer receives a spreadsheet with your name, address, account number, charge off date, and the amount owed. What they often do not receive is the original account agreement, a complete payment history, or a clear chain of ownership showing every transfer of the debt since the original default.
The Debt Buyers Filing Suit in Missouri
LVNV Funding, Midland Funding, and Portfolio Recovery Associates are among the largest and most active debt buyers in Missouri courts. They purchase accounts from credit card companies, banks, and other creditors and then pursue collection through law firms they hire or that operate on their behalf. Gamash & Meyers and Blitt & Gaines are among the collection law firms that regularly file these cases in Missouri associate circuit courts.
These firms handle high volumes of cases simultaneously. Their business model is built on the assumption that most defendants won’t fight back. When someone does fight back with competent representation, many of these cases resolve in the consumer’s favor because the underlying documentation simply isn’t there to prove the claim.
Why Debt Buyers Often Cannot Prove Their Cases in Court
The burden of proof in a Missouri collection case is on the plaintiff. That means the debt buyer has to prove three things to win. They have to prove you owe the debt. They have to prove the amount is accurate. And they have to prove they have the legal standing to collect it, meaning they actually own the debt and acquired it properly.
The Documentation Problem
Debt buyers frequently struggle to produce the documentation needed to prove all three elements. The original account agreement may have been lost or never transferred. The complete payment and transaction history may not have been included in the sale. Chain of ownership records showing every transfer from the original creditor to the current plaintiff can be incomplete or unavailable. When we file formal discovery requests asking the debt buyer to produce these documents, they often can’t.
The Statute of Limitations Defense
Missouri’s statute of limitations on consumer debt is five years from your last payment or payment due date, though in some cases involving a written contract it can extend to ten years. Debt buyers often purchase old accounts and pursue them years after the original default, sometimes without calculating whether the statute has run. When a case is filed outside the limitations period, it should be dismissed and the debt buyer may have violated the FDCPA by filing it.
The Amount Dispute
The amount a debt buyer sues you for is often significantly higher than what was owed at charge off. The amount sued for often reflects the full original balance, even though the debt buyer paid just cents on the dollar for the account. Court costs are typically modest, but the total can still feel overwhelming compared to what was originally owed. We challenge these amounts as part of every case we handle.
How the Missouri Collection Court Process Works
Missouri’s associate circuit courts handle the vast majority of collection cases, including most debt buyer lawsuits. Understanding how the process works takes a lot of the fear out of it, and helps explain why having representation from the start makes such a big difference.
The Summons and Return Date
Once a petition is filed, the court assigns a return date, typically 30 to 90 days out, and a summons is served on you either by the county sheriff or a process server. Collection attorneys typically file these cases on two legal theories, breach of contract and account stated, both of which require them to prove the debt is valid and the amount is accurate. Once the case is filed it becomes a public record visible on Missouri’s Case.net system at courts.mo.gov. The return date is the first court appearance date. You don’t have to do anything other than show up on that date, but if you don’t show up and the plaintiff has filed the right documents, the court will call your name three times and then enter a default judgment against you.
What a Default Judgment Means
A default judgment is one of the worst outcomes in a collection case. Once entered, the debt buyer can immediately begin using it to garnish your wages, levy your bank accounts, and place liens on real estate you own. In Missouri, a creditor with a judgment can garnish up to 25 percent of your disposable wages. A default judgment stays active for ten years and can be renewed. It also accrues interest at a minimum of 9 percent per year until paid.
The Monthly Call Docket
If you or your attorney appear on the return date and contest the case, the court assigns it to a regular monthly call docket. At each call docket the court checks in on the status of the case. These appearances happen every 30 days or so and can continue for months before the case resolves. The debt buyer’s attorney will already be at court that day handling other cases, so continued appearances cost them very little. Every month the case continues without a judgment is a month the debt buyer gets no money and you keep yours.
Discovery and the Path to Dismissal
Once we enter the case on your behalf, we file formal discovery requests asking the opposing attorneys, whether we are dealing with a debt buyer or an original creditor like Capital One or Chase, to produce the documentation needed to prove their claim. These requests include interrogatories, requests for production of documents, and requests for admission. The debt buyer has 30 to 60 days to respond, and courts can and do grant them additional time. When the responses come back incomplete or the debt buyer can’t produce key documents, we use that to build toward a motion to dismiss or a favorable settlement. Many cases resolve at this stage because the debt buyer decides your case is more trouble than it’s worth.
The Courthouse Trap You Need to Know About
One of the most common ways people lose collection cases isn’t at trial. It’s in the hallway outside the courtroom on the first court date. Collection attorneys, knowing that most defendants are unrepresented and nervous, will often approach them before the hearing and propose a deal. They’ll explain that they just need to work something out, that a payment plan can make this go away, and that all you need to do is sign a form.
That form is almost certainly a consent judgment. A consent judgment means exactly what it sounds like. You consent to a judgment being entered against you. The case is over. You’ve lost. And the collection attorney now has a judgment they can use to garnish your wages and levy your bank accounts if you miss a payment or can’t keep up with the plan. You’ve also surrendered most of your rights to challenge the validity of the debt, the amount, or the plaintiff’s standing to sue you.
Never sign anything in the courthouse without reading it completely and understanding what it says. If you are already represented by our firm, the opposing attorney should not be talking to you directly at all. All communication goes through us.
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Why Debt Negotiation Companies Often Make Things Worse
A large number of the consumers we hear from have already tried working with a debt negotiation or debt settlement company before the lawsuit was filed. These companies promise to resolve your debts in 12, 18, or 24 months and typically instruct you to stop paying your creditors and funnel the money into a trust account instead. The reality is usually far worse than the pitch.
Most debt negotiation companies are based out of state and have no licensed attorneys in Missouri. They charge significant fees that are typically paid out of your trust account first, before any settlements are made. After a year of nonpayment, your accounts have charged off, the debt has been sold to a buyer, and lawsuit after lawsuit has been filed against you. Your trust account may be close to empty and the debt negotiation company has no real leverage to fight the cases on your behalf.
If you’ve been sued after working with a debt negotiation company, we can almost always still help. The earlier you call us, the more options we have. One more thing worth knowing. If you have not been sued yet, pre-suit debt negotiation is something you can often handle yourself. Credit card companies frequently work with consumers directly and come close to the same deal a third party company could get, without the fees. Save your money, make the calls, and if it ever turns into a lawsuit, that’s when you call us. If the debt negotiation company’s conduct itself violated the law, there may be additional claims worth exploring as well.
Our Flat Fee Structure and What It Covers
One of the biggest barriers people face when trying to get legal help is not knowing what it’s going to cost. Hourly billing in a case that lasts several months can spiral into thousands of dollars. We eliminate that uncertainty entirely with flat fees.
Our flat fee for consumer debt defense cases is $200 per month for three months, or a discounted fee of $550 if paid upfront. This is a one time fee that covers everything we do on your case regardless of how long it takes. If your case resolves in six weeks, the fee is the same. If it takes ten months, the fee is the same. You will never receive a bill for individual court appearances, phone calls, letters, or motions filed on your behalf.
Payment plans are available. The payment plan is not tied to the length of your case. Even if your case concludes before the payment schedule is complete, the remaining balance is still owed because the early resolution reflects the work we put in on your behalf. If you need help getting started, call us and we’ll discuss what works for your situation.
What Does Winning a Consumer Debt Defense Case Actually Mean?
What winning looks like depends on who is suing you. In debt buyer cases, the most common outcome is dismissal. The buyer decides the case isn’t worth the fight when they can’t produce the documentation to prove it, and the lawsuit is over. Many clients pay nothing at all. In first-party cases involving creditors like Chase or Capital One, we almost always secure a no-interest payment plan for a fraction of the original balance. Every dollar you pay goes toward the settlement, not interest. Think about what that means on a $10,000 account charging 29 percent interest. That’s $250 a month in interest alone going nowhere. With a no-interest plan, every payment makes real progress.
In some situations, clients choose to make a small payment to reach a full resolution that also includes credit report relief. This is never required to win the case, but some clients prefer a clean resolution that addresses both the lawsuit and the credit report entry at the same time. We will always discuss this option clearly, explain what it involves, and never pressure you into paying anything you don’t have to pay.
What winning does not automatically do is fix your credit report. Court cases and credit reporting are separate processes. We do our best to pursue credit relief as part of case resolution, and in many situations we succeed. But we never guarantee credit outcomes because the credit reporting system operates independently of the courts.
Frequently Asked Questions About Consumer Debt Defense in Missouri
Q. I’ve never heard of the company suing me. How can they sue me for a debt?
This is extremely common. The company suing you is almost certainly a debt buyer that purchased your account from the original creditor, often years after the original default. They paid pennies on the dollar for it and are now trying to collect the full amount plus fees and interest. Just because you’ve never dealt with them doesn’t mean the debt isn’t real, but it does mean their documentation is often incomplete.
Q. What happens if I just ignore the lawsuit?
The court will enter a default judgment against you. Once that happens, the debt buyer can garnish up to 25 percent of your disposable wages, levy your bank accounts, and place liens on your property. A default judgment in Missouri stays active for ten years, can be renewed every ten years indefinitely, and accrues interest the entire time at a minimum of 9 percent per year. On top of that, the creditor can require you to appear in court for what’s called a debtor’s exam, a hearing where you are required to disclose your finances. If you fail to show up, the judge can issue a warrant for your arrest. The bond is often set at the amount of the judgment itself. This is rare, but it does happen, and it is used as a pressure tactic to force payment. If you ever receive notice of a debtor’s exam, call us immediately. Ignoring a lawsuit is almost always the worst option.
Q. Should I sign the payment plan the collection attorney offered me at the courthouse?
No. What they’re asking you to sign is almost certainly a consent judgment, which means you consent to a judgment being entered against you. Once you sign it, the lawsuit is over and you’ve lost. You give up your rights to fight the debt, and if you miss any payments on the plan the debt buyer can immediately pursue garnishment. Never sign anything in a courthouse without legal counsel.
Q. I used a debt negotiation company and now I’m being sued anyway. Can you still help?
Yes, in most situations. Unfortunately, debt negotiation companies frequently leave clients in worse positions than when they started. Even if you’re mid case, we can often step in, enter an appearance, and begin working toward a favorable resolution. Call us as soon as possible so we can review where things stand.
Q. What exactly is a ‘charged off’ account?
Charge off is an accounting term, not a forgiveness of debt. When you stop paying a credit card or other account for about six months, the original creditor writes the account off their books as an unlikely collectible asset. This is a bookkeeping entry required by accounting rules. The debt itself remains legally valid and fully collectible. After charge off, the account is usually sold to a debt buyer.
Q. How much does it cost to hire Boevingloh & Pliakos for a debt defense case?
We charge a flat fee of $200 per month for three months, or a discounted fee of $550 paid upfront. This covers everything regardless of how long the case takes. Payment plans are available. The fee is the same whether the case takes two months or twelve.
Q. Will I have to go to court?
In most cases, no. Once we enter the case, we handle all court appearances on your behalf through motions and communications with opposing counsel, including the monthly call docket dates. If your case does require your attendance at any point, we will tell you exactly what to expect and what to say. Our goal is always to keep you out of the courtroom.
Q. How long does a debt defense case take in Missouri?
Most cases take between six and twelve months to resolve. Some conclude faster, particularly if the debt buyer dismisses early in the discovery process. Cases that are more heavily contested can take longer. Every month the case continues without a judgment is a month you keep your money.
Q. What is the statute of limitations on debt in Missouri?
Generally five years from your last payment or payment due date, though it can extend to ten years in some cases involving a written contract. If a lawsuit was filed after the statute of limitations ran, the case should be dismissed and the debt buyer may have violated the FDCPA. Calculating the statute requires case specific information, so call us to discuss your situation.
Q. Can a debt buyer garnish my wages without going to court first?
No. A creditor or debt buyer cannot garnish your wages or levy your bank accounts without first obtaining a judgment against you through the court process. That’s precisely why fighting the lawsuit before a judgment is entered is so important. Once a judgment exists, the collection tools available to the plaintiff expand significantly.
Related Practice Areas
Consumer debt defense often connects with other areas of consumer law we handle. If your situation involves more than just the collection lawsuit, we can address the full picture.
If the debt buyer or its attorneys violated your rights under federal consumer protection law, we handle FDCPA claims that may entitle you to damages, sometimes within the same case.
If the same violation was directed at a large group of consumers, the case may qualify as a class action. We review every debt defense case for class action potential.
If the collection lawsuit has damaged your credit report, or if inaccurate information appeared independently, we also handle credit report problems and work to address both issues together when possible.
For a broader overview of how we protect Missouri consumers against debt collectors, visit our debt defense practice overview.
Ready To Start Fighting Back?
If you’ve been served with a collection lawsuit in Missouri, or if you’re receiving calls and letters that suggest one is coming, getting representation in place early gives you every possible advantage. The sooner we can enter the case, stop the sheriff from showing up at your door or workplace, and begin building pressure through the discovery process, the better your position will be.
We know this is stressful. Being sued feels serious, even when the company suing you paid almost nothing for your account and may not even be able to prove it owns the debt. Our clients range from recent college graduates to retired homeowners to working parents who hit a rough patch. What they all have in common is that they deserved competent, honest representation, and in most cases they came out ahead.
Here’s what happens when you call us. We answer the phone. You speak with someone who handles these cases in Missouri courts every week and who will give you a straight, honest answer about your situation. We’ll review the case, explain your options, and tell you exactly what we think the likely outcomes are. If it makes sense to move forward, we’ll explain the flat fee, the timeline, and the process. No pressure. No surprise bills. No hourly meter running.
Our flat fee is $200 per month for three months, or $550 upfront. Payment plans are available. We serve clients in virtually every county across Missouri and handle court appearances statewide, so your location is not a barrier.
Call us at 314.989.1492 or toll free at 1.800.989.1492. Our office is located in Clayton, just steps from the courthouse. You can also reach us through the contact form on this site. The earlier you call, the more options we have.
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