There is a very good chance you do not owe the debt, as the time for the creditor to file such a lawsuit has passed. Under Article 3494 (4) of the Louisiana Code of Civil Procedure, a creditor has to file a lawsuit within three years for an open account. Many debt acquisition companies buy old credit card debt for pennies-on-the-dollar from major credit card companies, then use extremely aggressive tactics to collect your old debt. One of the tricks these companies use is to get a consumer to make a single payment toward the debt so the three-year period in which they can file a lawsuit starts all over again.
Even if the three-year period to file a lawsuit has run and no payments toward the debt were made within three years, many of these companies will ignore the law and sue anyway. Once filed, many of these lawsuits fail to provide a valid credit agreement, ownership of the debt through a lawful chain of title, when the debt went into default, nor any sort of breakdown of the amount owed. As most consumers don’t know what these companies must prove under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, they fail to file an Answer to the lawsuit. Due to financial constraints, many consumers don’t reach out to an attorney for advice. This failure to act ultimately results in these companies obtaining what is known as a Default Judgment and these debt acquisition companies can then begin to garnish one’s wages.