Legal Question in Consumer Law in California

The statute of limitations is the time limit to START a collection lawsuit, not a limit on how long they have to collect. If there was a garnishment, they not only started the lawsuit, they got a judgment against you. Judgments are good for ten years and can be renewed indefinitely every ten years. If you never received a summons to appear in that lawsuit and never knew about it any other way, you can challenge it, but your time to do so is VERY short since you now have notice. Get to a lawyer immediately.. If you knew about the collections lawsuit, all you can do is pay it or file for bankruptcy. Making arrangements for payment, if you don't qualify for bankruptcy, is a WAY better choice than ignoring it and making them keep using garnishments to collect, because interest and the costs of collection just get added to the judgment, making it harder ever to pay it off.