Connecticut debt: six years, and a payment plan before any wage garnishment

Six years for an action for an account, or on any simple, implied or written contract (C.G.S. 52-576), and three years for an oral contract (52-581).

An acknowledgment that the debt is just and owing restarts the clock, and Connecticut courts have held that an acknowledgment by one of several people who signed a note removes the time bar for all of them. So if you share a debt, one person's acknowledgment can affect everyone on it.

Before wages can be garnished, the court must first enter an installment payment order and the debtor must fall behind on it; only then can the creditor apply for a wage execution (Conn. Gen. Stat. 52-356d(d) and 52-361a(a)). A wage execution can take no more than the lesser of 25% of weekly disposable earnings or the amount above 40 times the higher of the state or federal minimum wage (C.G.S. 52-361a).

So keeping up with a court installment order protects your paycheck. An employer may not discipline, suspend or fire you because of a wage execution unless it has been served with more than seven against you in a calendar year, and each wage execution is automatically paused for 20 days after it is served (Conn. Gen. Stat. 52-361a). Judgments can be enforced for up to twenty years.

Connecticut's protections sit on top of federal law; our page on stopping a wage garnishment explains both.

Our guide to time-barred and zombie debt explains what collectors may and may not do once the 6-year limit in Connecticut has passed.

Limits vary a lot between states: by comparison, Illinois sets 5 years and Missouri sets 5 years for similar debts.

To make a collector prove a debt in Connecticut, send a debt validation letter within the dispute window.

For the court side of a Connecticut debt, from the summons to a possible judgment, see how to defend a debt collection lawsuit.

The Creditors' Collection Practices Act (C.G.S. 36a-645 to 36a-648) covers original creditors collecting their own debts. Anyone collecting consumer debts as a collection agency, including debt buyers, must hold a consumer collection agency license from the Department of Banking (C.G.S. 36a-800 and following).

The federal dispute right applies to collectors: a written dispute inside the validation period makes the collector stop until it mails verification.

If your letter comes from a national company such as IC System or Jefferson Capital Systems, our collector guides explain who they are and how to dispute.