Defending Consumers and Their Assets
The definitive treatise detailing consumer defenses against debt buyer and creditor collection lawsuits, garnishments, and enforcement efforts across credit card, medical, criminal justice, and other debts.
Defending Collection Lawsuits
- Litigation Strategy & Defenses: Guidance on case selection, client counseling, statute of limitations defenses, court jurisdiction/access limits, military protections, and individual or class counterclaims.
- Evidentiary & Procedural Challenges: Identifying errors in complaints and attachments, challenging debt buyer proof of debt ownership, and countering abusive requests for admissions.
- Fee & Interest Restrictions: Establishing legal limits on creditor attorney fees, collection fees, and pre- and post-judgment interest.
- Practice Tools: Customizable sample pleadings and discovery materials.
Specialized Debt & Niche Collections
- Medical & Nursing Home Debt: Navigating financial assistance, surprise out-of-network billing, special defenses, and restrictions on credit reporting or denial of care.
- Government & Criminal Debt: Strategies for defending government debts and minimizing criminal justice debt and its harsh non-payment consequences.
- Targeted Debt Categories: Specialized tactics for rental debt, coerced debt from abusive partners, private student loans, and dishonored check collections.
Post-Judgment Protections & Remedies
- Setting Aside Judgments & Protecting Assets: Methods to set aside default judgments and defend against wage garnishment, bank freezes, and home or vehicle seizures.
- Exemption Laws: Federal protections for Social Security and SSI bank deposits, state-by-state exemption summaries, and reprints of key federal exemption statutes and regulations.
- Debtor Exams & Credit Cleanup: Navigating debtor examinations, protections against imprisonment for debt, and post-prevail credit report restoration.
- Attorney Fee Recovery: Seven distinct pathways for consumers to recover attorney fees after prevailing.
"I use the NCLC books in my bankruptcy practice and to expand my practice in other areas... I have used the Collection Actions book to expand my practice into collection defense. In light of the change in bankruptcy law, I have been able to expand my practice to defend collection cases for debtors who if they filed bankruptcy would have been 100% plans. I have gotten better results for my clients that I would have in bankruptcy court and I avoided the bankruptcy on my clients record. Collection defense involves the same debt buyers and the same claims...” —Patrick Kavanagh, Law Offices of Patrick Kavanagh, Bakersfield, CA