Legal Question in Credit and Debt Law in Ohio

Re: debt collection

How you deny the charges will depend on where in the process things are. If you are at the stage where no court case has been started against you and the collector is either writing or calling you about an alleged debt, you need to respond directly to the debt collector. Under federal law, you have 30 days to formally deny the debt and request verification of the debt. This must be done in writing. The debt collector must then supply you with the information before he/she can make any further attempts at collecting the alleged debt. Sometimes it can help to have an attorney work with you on this denial and to deal with the debt collector for you.

If a lawsuit has been started against you, you generally have 28 days to respond to the allegations of the debt collector against you. If you don't do this, the court will enter a default against you and the debt collector will then have a judgment against you to collect on rather than just an alleged debt. You should definitely consider speaking with an attorney in this case to ensure that your rights are fully protected from the beginning.

If you have any other questions or would like to discuss your situation in more detail, feel free to contact me.