Who is suing you
Never mind the amount. Look at who is suing you.
The company suing you probably never lent you the money. Debt buyers file most of these lawsuits. They pay pennies for a spreadsheet of accounts and count on you not answering. Start by working out which one bought yours.
“Never look at the amount of the debt but rather, who is suing you when assessing your response and chances in opposing a debt collector lawsuit.”
Brian Parker · LVNV cheat sheet
LVNV Funding
Files the mostNo employees and no contact with you, per the Massachusetts high court. Nearly a quarter of every filing where court data is public.
Midland Credit Management
Two CFPB ordersTwo CFPB orders and a multistate settlement, with robo-signing findings in the record. The second CFPB order expired in October 2025.
Portfolio Recovery Associates
Repeat offenderIts own vice president, quoted in the CFPB’s consent order: “90% of our cases are default judgments.”
Jefferson Capital
Court costs up 70% in one year, disclosed in its own annual report. Auto, telecom and online loan paper.
Cavalry SPV
Four companies share the name. One holds the debt and another one collects it.
Crown Asset Management
Buys the paper and refers every account out, the lawsuit included. A federal appeals court found that as fact.
Velocity Investments
Online loan paper, and a deposition in which its own witness agreed a link was missing.
Someone else?
The playbook below applies to every debt buyer. Start with what to do when you have been served.
What they paid for your debt
4¢
the average paid per dollar of face value, across the industry.
Federal Trade Commission, study of the debt buying industry, 2013
6.4¢
Jefferson Capital’s own disclosed average for 2025.
11.9¢
Midland’s 2025 average. Encore reports the price paid and the face value; the cents are our calculation.
What they bought was a spreadsheet. The signed agreement and the account records usually did not come with it, and the plaintiff still has to produce them.
Court data
Who actually files. Massachusetts, 2025.
| Plaintiff | Cases filed in 2025 |
|---|---|
| LVNV Funding | 31,545 |
| Midland Funding | 28,461 |
| Portfolio Recovery | 17,754 |
LVNV filed 12,807 of these cases in 2019, 13.4% of the state total. In 2025 it filed 21.7% and passed Midland. Across Virginia, Minnesota, North Dakota and Missouri, January Advisors and Pew both found LVNV filing nearly five times as many cases in 2025 as in 2019, and 23% of all 2025 filings. Cavalry SPV went the other way and filed about two thirds of its 2019 level. We have not found another page on these companies that publishes any of this.
Massachusetts Trial Court consumer debt actions dashboard · January Advisors, July 2026 · Pew Charitable Trusts, July 2026
From the library
The Dirty Secret of Debt Buying
The playbook
Four things apply to all seven.
Standing is assignments.
Brian’s first question in one of these files is whether the plaintiff can show the account moved to it from the bank you borrowed from. He calls a broken chain of title the primary attack vector.
The forward flow agreement.
Every bill of sale points at a master agreement, and they do not attach it. Ask for it.
The counter affidavit.
Brian calls it the most important document a consumer files. In Michigan a statute makes it burden-shifting. Elsewhere it still puts your side of the facts in front of the judge under oath.
Answer first.
Ignore the summons and they take a default judgment, which reaches wages and bank accounts.
The arbitration question, answered straight
Reddit’s most repeated tactic in these cases is the motion to compel arbitration, and people there report it working. Brian takes the other side: “Arbitration is not your first move. Arbitration is your last resort.” The motion moves your case out of court, and moving it back is hard. In May 2026 a federal appeals court held that a collection law firm could not invoke the arbitration clause in the consumer’s loan agreement at all, because that clause protected creditors and loan servicers rather than lawyers. In the same case the district court had already ruled that the debt buyer gave up arbitration by suing in state court first.
Brian Parker · arbitration guide · Jackson v. Protas, Spivok & Collins (4th Cir. 2026)
Brian, on arbitration
Why The Motion To Compel Arbitration Is Bad Advice In A Debt Buyer Case
Whoever it is, the papers started a clock.
The summons prints your deadline to answer, and the count differs by state. Find that date first, then work out who is on the other side of the case.