Defending You When a Debt Ends Up in Court
Being served with a lawsuit over a debt is jarring. One day it is phone calls and letters, and the next there is a summons and a complaint with your name on it and a deadline attached. The instinct many people have is to freeze, or to hope it goes away if they ignore it. That is the one response that almost guarantees a bad result. A debt lawsuit you answer is a fight you can often win, settle, or reshape. A debt lawsuit you ignore usually turns into a default judgment against you, and that is when wages get garnished and bank accounts get frozen.
From our Hackensack office, David Stevens represents individuals and business owners across Northern New Jersey, from New Brunswick and up, when a debt problem lands in a courtroom. You reach the attorney who will handle your case, not an intake line.
The kinds of cases we handle
Debt-related litigation comes in a few common forms, and they are connected to the rest of what we do.
What an adversary proceeding actually is
Most of a bankruptcy case runs on paperwork and deadlines, not courtroom fights. An adversary proceeding is the exception. It is a lawsuit filed inside your bankruptcy case, and it covers a specific list of disputes: whether a particular debt should be discharged, whether you should be denied a discharge entirely, whether a payment you made before filing should be clawed back as a preference, whether a transfer of property was a fraudulent transfer, or whether a lien should be avoided. If a creditor believes a debt was incurred through fraud, or the trustee believes money moved out of the estate improperly before filing, an adversary proceeding is how that gets decided. We represent both people defending against one of these actions and people who need to bring one, for example to force a lien off a property once a debt tied to it has been discharged.
Collection lawsuits
These are cases brought by original creditors, like a credit card company, or increasingly by debt buyers, companies that purchase old debts for pennies on the dollar and then sue to collect the full amount. Debt buyer cases in particular often have real weaknesses, because the company suing you sometimes cannot properly prove it owns the debt or document the amount it claims.
If the debt is old enough or the numbers work, bankruptcy may resolve this faster than fighting the lawsuit. Our Consumer & Business Bankruptcy page and Small Business Reorganization page cover those options.
Post-judgment enforcement
If a creditor has already won a judgment, the fight is not necessarily over. We deal with wage garnishments, bank levies, and other collection efforts, and in some situations a judgment can be challenged, negotiated down, or resolved through a broader debt strategy.
Creditor disputes tied to restructuring
When a business is reorganizing or an individual is dealing with foreclosure, disputes with creditors sometimes spill into litigation. We handle those, keeping the courtroom fight aligned with the larger plan to resolve the debt.
Why you must not ignore a summons
This is the most important thing on this page. When you are served with a collection lawsuit in New Jersey, you have a limited time to file a written answer with the court. If that deadline passes with no response, the creditor can ask the court for a default judgment, which means they win automatically, without ever having to prove their case. Once they have a judgment, they gain powerful collection tools, including the ability to garnish your wages and levy your bank account.
Here is the frustrating part. Many of those lawsuits could have been defended, reduced, or settled on far better terms if the person had simply responded. Filing an answer preserves all of your rights and forces the creditor to actually back up its claims. Sometimes that alone changes everything, because collectors count on people not showing up.
The defenses that often exist
People assume that being sued over a debt means they automatically lose, but that is not how it works. The creditor has to prove its case, and there are frequently real problems with that proof.
The debt may be past the statute of limitations, the legal time window within which a creditor is allowed to sue. If it has expired, that can be a complete defense. The creditor, especially a debt buyer, may not be able to produce the documents proving it owns the debt or establishing the exact amount owed. The amount claimed may be wrong, padded with fees or interest that do not hold up. There may have been violations of consumer protection laws in how the debt was collected. And sometimes it is simply not your debt, the result of mistaken identity or even identity theft. We look for every one of these, because any of them can flip the case.
Settlement is often the real goal
Not every case should go all the way to trial, and a good outcome does not require one. Once a creditor knows you have a lawyer and that you are prepared to make them prove their case, the conversation changes. Many collection lawsuits resolve through a negotiated settlement for less than the full amount, sometimes far less, on terms you can actually manage. Having representation gives you leverage you simply do not have when you are facing the creditor’s attorney alone.
When litigation and bankruptcy meet
Sometimes the smartest response to a wave of collection lawsuits is not to fight each one separately but to address the underlying debt as a whole. A bankruptcy filing triggers the automatic stay, which stops pending collection lawsuits and garnishments in their tracks, and can discharge the debts behind them entirely. Whether that makes sense depends on your full situation. Because we handle both the litigation and the bankruptcy side, we can look at the whole picture and recommend the path that actually solves the problem rather than just winning one skirmish. You can read more on our [Bankruptcy Law] page.
Where these cases are heard
Collection cases in New Jersey are handled in the Superior Court, in either the Law Division or the Special Civil Part depending on the amount in dispute, in the county where the case is filed. For our clients that generally means Bergen County in Hackensack, Passaic in Paterson, Morris in Morristown, Hudson in Jersey City, Sussex in Newton, Essex in Newark, and Monmouth County, including [Red Bank] and [Middletown], in Freehold. Knowing how these local courts operate is part of defending a case well.
What to do right now if you have been served
Note the deadline immediately, because everything depends on it. Keep every document you were served with, since they contain the information we need. Do not contact the collector to admit the debt or agree to anything before you get advice, because those conversations can be used against you. And call a lawyer before the answer period runs out, because the window to protect your rights is the one thing you cannot get back once it closes.
Frequently asked questions
Why people choose ClearPath
David handles these cases personally, because a lawsuit is not something to route through a template. This is a focused practice, not a filing factory. You get an attorney who knows New Jersey collection litigation, who will hold the creditor to its burden of proof, and who can connect the courtroom fight to a larger strategy for getting out of debt for good. Being sued is stressful, but it is not the end of the story, and you do not have to face it alone.
ClearPath Law delivers strategic, aggressive litigation defense for business owners, investors, and individuals facing high-stakes financial and corporate disputes. In addition to debt defense, the firm protects clients across commercial litigation, business divorces, bankruptcy adversary proceedings, and tax controversies. Every matter is approached with the same goal: protecting your enterprise, assets, and financial future.
Ready to talk?
There is no charge to find out where you stand. Call, tell us what you were served with and when, and we will tell you honestly what can be done.
ClearPath Law 2 University Plaza, Suite 400, Hackensack, N.J. 07601