LVNV Funding lawsuit: confirm the case, then respond on time

LVNV Funding owns accounts, and the manager is Resurgent Capital Services, which describes itself as a manager and servicer of consumer debt portfolios for credit grantors and debt buyers^[5][9]. In a 2012 case, a federal court described Sherman Financial Group as owning the company that owns LVNV Funding, and as owning 99% of Resurgent Capital Services, which acted as LVNV's master servicer.^[10] So a lawsuit about an LVNV account may name LVNV Funding, LLC, while letters and calls come from Resurgent, a collection agency or a law firm. Check the original creditor and the amount in the papers against your own records.

Some lawsuit threats are scams.^[11] Resurgent warns of scams in which "harassing or threatening calls have been made regarding payday and credit or collection accounts"^[12]. Resurgent asks people to report anyone falsely claiming to be Resurgent or one of its partners to 1-888-665-0374^[12][13]. To check a summons:

• Call the court named on the papers, using a number from the court's official website.^[1]
• Ignore demands to pay by phone or text to "make the case go away". Courts do not take payment that way.^[1]
• Ask Resurgent about the account on 1-888-665-0374, the number on its own website.^[14]

There are no public figures on how often LVNV, or its lawyers, appear at hearings, and no one can promise a case will be dropped. What is known is that most debt cases never get that far: Pew found that more than 70 percent of debt collection lawsuits end in a default judgment, usually because the person sued did not respond.^[2][3]

So the step that matters is yours. Respond by the deadline on the papers, and go to any hearing.^[4][15] Once you respond, the plaintiff has to prove to the court that the debt is valid.^[4] Our guide to responding to a debt lawsuit explains how.

Many Texas credit card cases go to justice court, where the deadline to answer is usually 14 days after you are served.^[16] Even if LVNV wins, Texas protects your paycheck: current wages for personal service cannot be garnished, except to enforce court-ordered child support or spousal maintenance (Texas Constitution article XVI, section 28)^[17][18]. Bank accounts are treated differently, so read our Texas guide.

Maryland's highest court held in 2019 that a "passive" debt buyer like LVNV, which used a licensed servicer, still needed its own Maryland collection agency license. LVNV had filed collection suits in 2008 before it was licensed. The court held those judgments were not void, but that consumers can sue an unlicensed collection agency for damages.^[5][6] The same opinion records that Maryland's Commissioner of Financial Regulation had found that, since 2005, LVNV acted as an unlicensed collection agency and that tens of thousands of its Maryland court filings knowingly contained false, deceptive or deficient complaints and affidavits.^[6] If you are in Maryland and were sued by LVNV, mention this to a lawyer or legal aid office.

A collector must not sue, or threaten to sue, on a time-barred debt.^[7][8] The court generally will not check the time limit for you, so it belongs in your answer.^[19] Our time-limit check shows your state's limit.

A debt collector must also sue where you live or where you signed the contract.^[20]

We do not prepare court papers or give legal advice. Free legal aid, your state's legal help website and consumer lawyers are the places to start. A collector that breaks the federal debt collection law can be ordered to pay the consumer's damages and legal fees.^[21]