You may need the help of a debt relief attorney if a credit card company or a collection agency is suing you. Whether an attorney negotiates with the creditor or debt collector to settle the debt for less than what you owe or raises a defense to the lawsuit, it's important to know your rights, especially when it comes to providing a defense.

Watch the Time

Although the law varies from state to state, if a credit card company has waited too long to file suit against you and the statute of limitations has passed, the debt may be too old to collect. If you aren't certain whether too much time has elapsed, seek the advice of an attorney who knows the laws in your state regarding credit card lawsuits.

The time limit for filing a lawsuit is calculated from the date you last made a payment to the credit card company. If some time passes, but not the full time in which a creditor is allowed to file suit, and you make a payment to a debt collector in the interim, the clock on the statute of limitations starts again.

But if the credit card company sold your debt to a debt collector and, in the meantime, you made a payment to the credit card company, the debt collector must get the money from the card company. This sometimes happens if you don't receive timely notice that the debt is being transferred to another creditor.

Request Proof That You Owe the Debt

Credit card companies often sell bad debts to debt collectors. If a debt collector sues you, it must prove to the court that it has the right to sue you. But sometimes the debt changes hands several times, making it more difficult for a debt collector to prove that it purchased your individual credit account from a creditor.

You can demand proof that you owe the debt; however, a debt collector may have no documentation of the debt other than a computer-generated list – the accuracy of which may be hard to prove. The court may require proof from the debt collector that includes original documentation with your signature, address, and social security number.

Know the Law Governing Summons Delivery

A creditor who files a complaint against you must do so in the county where you live. You then are given a certain number of days to respond to the complaint and state your defenses.

Since the process can be confusing, an attorney like Clinger Richard S can give you information on how the laws in your state require that a summons be delivered. If you were not served correctly, the time you were given to respond to the suit may have lapsed. In that case, you may raise improper service of the summons as a defense.

Bankruptcy

If you received a discharge of the credit card debt in bankruptcy, you aren't responsible for paying the debt. In fact, even while your case is in bankruptcy court, a debt collector can't continue to collect the debt, provided that you included the debt in the list you filed with the bankruptcy court. But if the debt collector still comes after you, you can use it as a defense if you are sued.