Every state, including California, has a time limit when it comes to civil actions on delinquent debts. The California statute of limitations debt collection laws set a time limit for a creditor to file a lawsuit against a debtor with a delinquent debt. In many cases, the lawsuit window usually starts as soon as the debtor becomes delinquent and has failed to make his due payments for more than a few months. If you have bad debts and your creditor has not taken any civil action against you until the statute of limitations is over, you may think that they may no longer file a lawsuit against you. However, you may want to bear in mind that they may still do so but you have the right to have the suit dismissed on this particular basis.

Many people misunderstand the California statute of limitations debt collection laws and those of any other state because they believe that they cover all forms of debt collection and once the period is over creditors may no longer collect on their debts. As stated previously, the statute of limitations only covers civil action so if your creditor still pursues collecting their debts from you by any other means such as by letters and telephone calls, they may actually do so legally. In such cases, you may want to learn a thing or two about the “cease and desist” provision of the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. This is because third-party collectors may be bound by the Act and their method of debt collection may be limited under the Act.

You probably already know that the time limit on the amount of time you may be sued for a debt may depend a lot on the type of debt you have. Generally, creditors are given four years to file a civil suit against you for defaulting on your debts. If you find yourself close to defaulting on your debts you may want to get some assistance from California debt help agencies. These agencies may provide you with proper financial counseling so you may work with them to ensure that your delinquent debts are paid before your creditors could file a lawsuit against you. Other than counseling, these agencies may also provide negotiation services where their representative would liaise with your creditors to get a reduction on your debt or to negotiate a new repayment schedule. Lawsuits are generally expensive so many creditors may agree to a new repayment plan.

California debt relief agencies generally may also offer various types of solutions to suit your particular financial situation. Depending on the severity of your financial difficulties, these agencies may offer programs such as debt consolidation, debt reduction, debt settlement and perhaps even bankruptcy. Whatever the solution they suggest, you still have the power to decide which solution you want to take. Ideally, you may want to ensure that you take such action before your creditors start all the work to file a lawsuit against you. Of course, sometimes in the middle of a civil action creditors may even be willing to settle out of court provided you have a sound plan to convince them that they may be getting their money back. This may prove to be more difficult than if you had approached them with a repayment strategy before the lawsuit.

Statute of limitations is meant to protect debtors from unreasonable harassment from creditors for debts that are really old. However, this law may be limited to stopping a civil lawsuit from happening. Your creditors may legally exercise their other rights to collect their debts.

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