Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Pennsylvania

its 4 years in PA. I have seen them file after the statute, so its not going to prevent a lawsuit. SOL is a defense that you raise during the litigation.

In addition, if you are sued after the SOL has expired, you would have a lawsuit against the debt collector under the FDCPA. The great thing about those lawsuits is that you do not have to pay an attorney to represent you. The attorney, if he/she knows what they are doing, will obtain fees from the offending debt collector.

Yes, but as Attorney Artim noted, this is a waivable defense. That means if you have it, don't just sit and ignore the lawsuit. You only have 20 days to answer the complaint, so you need to get to an attorney immediately to have the attorney draft a proper answer for you if you are sued. Otherwise, if you do not answer, the statute of limitations defense is waived.

While the statute generally is 4 years in PA, note that there may be a longer statute if the account was opened in a state other than PA. Ohio has an exceptionally long statute; other states are generally 4 to 6 years.

What Attorney Artim says is true but the FDCPA only applies to third-party debt collectors, not original creditors. I don't know if your debt is still with the original creditor or if it has been sold. If it has been a very long time, it may have been sold. Further, there might be other violations of the FDCPA and only an attorney who handles debt collection can tell you for sure.

It depends on what area of the state you are in - you may want to contact Attorney Artim or another attorney if you are in PA and have a viable statute of limitations or other legitimate defense or an FDCPA violation. If you want to resolve this debt outside of litigation because there are no FDCPA violations or no defenses, then feel free to contact me.

Rachel Hunter

Attorney at Law

[email protected]

(678)-687-9693

Admitted in GA, PA & NC