If you’ve been sued by a credit card company in Florida, you have 20 days from the day you were served to file a written response with the court. Miss that window and the court can enter a default judgment against you for the full amount claimed, without ever hearing your side. Respond on time and you keep every defense on the table, including some that are particularly strong under Florida law.
Read the Summons and Complaint Carefully
You should have received two documents. The Summons is the court’s notice that a lawsuit has been filed and that you must respond. The Complaint lays out what the plaintiff claims: who they are, the account number, the balance they say you owe, and usually the date they say you stopped paying.
Go through the Complaint paragraph by paragraph. Look closely at the plaintiff’s name at the top. If it isn’t the bank that issued your card, a debt buyer has probably purchased your account, and that changes what you can challenge.
The 20-Day Deadline
Under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.140(a), you have 20 calendar days from the date of service to file your written response. The clock starts when the process server hands you the papers, not when you open the envelope or when the case was filed. Weekends and holidays count. If day 20 falls on a weekend or legal holiday, you get until the next business day.
This is the single most important date in the case. Everything else is recoverable. This one, once missed, is expensive to undo.
Who Is Actually Suing You
Credit card companies routinely sell delinquent accounts to debt buyers for a fraction of the balance. If the plaintiff is a name like Midland Credit Management, Portfolio Recovery Associates, or CACH LLC, a debt buyer bought your account and is now trying to collect.
Why it matters: a debt buyer has to prove it actually owns your specific account. That requires a complete chain of assignments from the original bank through every subsequent sale, plus the original cardholder agreement. Debt buyers often attach a generic bill of sale covering thousands of accounts without proving yours was among them. If any link is missing, you can challenge their standing to sue. Original creditors usually have direct access to the account records and agreement, so standing challenges rarely work against them, but other defenses still do.
Writing Your Answer
Your response is called an Answer. It goes through the Complaint paragraph by paragraph. For each numbered allegation, you do one of three things: admit it, deny it, or state that you lack enough information to admit or deny. When in doubt, deny or plead lack of knowledge. Admitting something in your Answer locks it in.
Do not skip any allegation. In Florida, anything you fail to address can be treated as admitted.
Affirmative Defenses to Include
Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.110(d) requires you to raise affirmative defenses in your responsive pleading or risk losing them.1The Florida Bar. Florida Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 1.110 General Rules of Pleading The defenses that matter most in credit card cases:
- Statute of limitations. Florida applies a five-year limitations period for lawsuits based on a written contract and a four-year period for obligations not based on a written instrument. Most credit card lawsuits involve a signed or accepted cardholder agreement, which courts generally treat as a written instrument subject to the five-year deadline. If no written agreement can be produced, the four-year period may apply. The clock typically starts when you last made a payment or when you breached the agreement.2Florida Senate. Florida Code 95.11 – Limitations Other Than for the Recovery of Real Property
- Lack of standing. The plaintiff cannot prove it owns your debt. Especially effective against debt buyers with incomplete chain-of-title records.
- Incorrect amount. The balance claimed includes charges, fees, or interest that are wrong or that the creditor cannot verify.
- Payment or accord and satisfaction. You already paid the debt or reached an earlier settlement.
Raise every defense that could plausibly apply. If you leave one out and try to bring it up at trial, the court can refuse to consider it.
Filing and Serving the Answer
Florida courts use a statewide electronic filing system, the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal at myflcourtaccess.com.3Florida Supreme Court. About the E-Filing Portal E-filing is mandatory for attorneys and open to self-represented parties. Some courthouses still accept paper filings at the clerk’s window; call your local clerk to confirm.
After you file, send a copy of the Answer to the plaintiff’s attorney by email or mail at the address on the Complaint. Include a certificate of service stating the date and method you used, and file that certificate with the court.
Filing fees vary by county and the amount in dispute, but plan for roughly $50 to $400. If you can’t afford it, you can file a motion asking the court to waive the fee based on financial hardship.
What Happens If You Miss the 20 Days
If you file nothing, the credit card company can ask the clerk to enter a default. Once that default is recorded, the court can enter a final judgment for the full amount claimed, plus interest and attorney’s fees, without hearing from you.4Florida Courts. Florida Rules of Civil Procedure – Rule 1.500 Defaults and Final Judgments Thereon
A judgment gives the creditor real collection tools. They can pursue a continuing writ of garnishment against your wages, meaning your employer withholds a portion of every paycheck until the debt is paid.5Florida Senate. Florida Code 77.0305 – Continuing Writ of Garnishment Against Salary or Wages They can also levy your bank accounts and place liens on property you own.
If you already missed the deadline, you may be able to ask the court to set the default aside. Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.540(b) allows relief based on mistake, inadvertence, surprise, excusable neglect, fraud, or a void judgment. For most grounds, the motion must be filed within one year of the judgment. Courts weigh whether you had a legitimate reason for not responding and whether you have a viable defense. The longer you wait, the harder this gets.
Florida’s Head-of-Family Wage Protection
This is where many defendants have more leverage than they realize. Under Florida Statute 222.11, if you qualify as a “head of family,” your wages may be entirely shielded from garnishment.6The Florida Legislature. Florida Code 222.11 – Exemption of Wages from Garnishment
You qualify as head of family if you provide more than half the financial support for a child or other dependent. If you meet that definition and your disposable earnings are $750 per week or less, your wages are entirely exempt. A credit card judgment creditor cannot touch them. If your disposable earnings exceed $750 per week, they still cannot be garnished unless you previously signed a specific written waiver in a separate document attached to the original credit agreement, printed in at least 14-point type, and explicitly explained by the creditor. Very few consumer credit card agreements include this waiver.
Even if you’re not a head of family, federal law caps garnishment for ordinary consumer debts at 25% of your disposable earnings or the amount by which your weekly disposable earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage ($217.50), whichever is less. If your weekly take-home is $217.50 or less, none of it can be garnished regardless of family status.
One detail worth knowing: exempt earnings deposited into a bank account remain exempt from levy for six months, as long as the funds can be traced back to wages. Mixing exempt earnings with other money in the same account doesn’t automatically destroy the exemption, but it makes tracing harder. Keeping wages in a separate account simplifies proving the exemption.
Social Security benefits are also generally exempt from garnishment by private creditors under Section 207 of the Social Security Act.7Social Security Administration. SSR 79-4 Levy and Garnishment of Benefits A credit card company cannot reach them.
Settling the Case
Most credit card lawsuits never reach trial. Settlement offers typically fall between 30% and 80% of the outstanding balance, with most landing in the 50% to 70% range. Debt buyers tend to accept lower percentages because they bought the account for pennies on the dollar. Older delinquent debts settle for less, too, because the creditor would rather recover something than risk getting nothing if you file for bankruptcy.
Your negotiating position depends on a few things. If the plaintiff is a debt buyer with weak chain-of-title records, they know the case could be dismissed, and that fear drives lower offers. If you can show genuine inability to pay, or head-of-family status that shields your wages, the creditor’s expected recovery drops and they get more flexible. A one-time lump sum typically gets you a better number than a payment plan.
Get any settlement in writing before you pay anything. The agreement should specify the total amount, confirm the remaining balance is forgiven, and state the creditor will dismiss the lawsuit with prejudice, meaning they cannot refile it.
Tax Consequences of Forgiven Debt
If a creditor forgives $600 or more of your debt, they must report the cancelled amount to the IRS on Form 1099-C.8Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1099-C, Cancellation of Debt The IRS treats forgiven debt as taxable income. If you owed $10,000 and settled for $4,000, you could owe income tax on the $6,000 that was written off.
There’s an important exception. If you were insolvent when the debt was cancelled, meaning your total debts exceeded your total assets, you can exclude some or all of the forgiven amount from income. You claim it by filing IRS Form 982 with your return.9Internal Revenue Service. What if I Am Insolvent? Many people being sued for credit card debt qualify without realizing it.
When Bankruptcy Is Worth Considering
Filing for bankruptcy triggers an automatic stay that immediately halts the lawsuit, along with wage garnishments and collection calls. The case is paused, not dismissed, while the bankruptcy court addresses your debts. Chapter 7 can eliminate credit card debt entirely if you qualify based on income. Chapter 13 lets you repay a portion over three to five years under a court-approved plan.
Bankruptcy carries long-term credit consequences and only makes sense when the debt is large enough or your finances difficult enough to justify it. But if you’re facing a judgment you cannot pay and your wages aren’t fully protected by the head-of-family exemption, it belongs on the table.
Collection Conduct That Can Backfire on the Creditor
Two laws regulate how creditors and collectors can treat you. The federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act applies only to third-party debt collectors, not to original creditors collecting their own accounts.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 1692a – Definitions Common violations include calling before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m., misrepresenting the amount owed, threatening actions the collector has no authority to take, and failing to validate the debt within five days of first contact. An FDCPA violation can support a counterclaim for up to $1,000 in statutory damages plus actual damages and attorney’s fees.
Florida’s Consumer Collection Practices Act reaches further. It prohibits abusive collection conduct by any “person,” which covers original creditors and debt collectors alike.11Florida Senate. Florida Code 559.72 – Prohibited Practices Generally The FCCPA bars threats of violence, profane language, contacting your employer before obtaining a judgment (unless you consented in writing), and attempting to collect a debt the creditor knows is not legitimate. If any of that happened during collection, the FCCPA gives you grounds for a counterclaim even against an original creditor.
After You File
Filing your Answer forces the plaintiff to actually prove its claims. The case moves into discovery, where both sides can request documents, send written questions, and take depositions. For credit card cases, this is where defendants often learn whether the plaintiff has the documentation to back up its claims. Debt buyers in particular struggle to produce the original cardholder agreement, complete account statements, and a valid chain of assignment.
The court may order mediation, where a neutral mediator helps both sides explore settlement. Mediation is not binding unless both sides sign on to a resolution. If nothing settles, the case moves toward trial, where the plaintiff bears the burden of proving you owe the debt and that the amount is correct. Many credit card cases settle or are dismissed before that point, especially when the defense has raised real issues and the plaintiff’s evidence turns out to be thin.