Being Sued Over Debt in Florida: What Happens and How to Respond

At a Glance

Time To Respond

20 days after being served

If You Don’t Respond

Default judgment against you

Head-of-Household Wages

Exempt from garnishment (Fla. Stat. § 222.11)

Exemption Deadline

20 days to file a Claim of Exemption

The most important thing: 20 days, no exceptions

Under the Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, once you’re served with a summons and complaint, you generally have 20 days to file a response — either an Answer or a motion. This is the single most consequential deadline in this entire process, because missing it doesn’t just delay things — it can end the case against you before you ever get to make an argument.

If you miss the deadline

The clerk can enter a default, and the court can then enter a default final judgment against you — meaning the creditor wins automatically, without proving their case, simply because you didn’t respond in time. Once a judgment exists, Florida law allows the creditor to pursue collection remedies like wage garnishment or a bank account levy.

Florida Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 1.500

Verified against official rule text · checked August 20, 2026

Where these cases are filed

Florida county courts handle civil cases up to $50,000; larger amounts go to circuit court. Most consumer credit card and debt-buyer lawsuits fall well within county court’s jurisdiction.

Fla. Stat. § 34.01

Verified against official statute text · checked August 20, 2026

How to actually respond

You (or your attorney) file a written Answer with the clerk of court, responding to each allegation in the complaint and raising any defenses you have. Florida’s state courts system maintains self-help resources for people representing themselves, and Miami-Dade’s Eleventh Judicial Circuit publishes information specifically on debt-collection cases. If you qualify for free legal help, our verified directory of Miami-Dade legal aid organizations is a faster starting point than trying to navigate this alone.

Common defenses in a debt-buyer lawsuit

Many of the companies suing over unpaid credit card debt today aren’t the original creditor — they’re debt buyers who purchased the account, often for pennies on the dollar. That creates real, common defenses:

The plaintiff can’t prove it owns the debt

A debt buyer has to be able to prove an unbroken chain of ownership from the original creditor to itself, and authenticate its account records under Florida’s business-records rules. If they can’t produce that proof, that’s a real defense — not a technicality.

Fla. Stat. § 90.803(6); Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.130

General legal standard · checked August 20, 2026

The statute of limitations has already run out

Florida’s limitations period is 5 years for a written contract, 4 years for an unwritten/open-account debt. If the debt is older than that, the case may be barred entirely — but you generally have to raise this defense yourself in your Answer; a court won’t necessarily raise it for you.

Fla. Stat. § 95.11(2)(b), (3)(j)

Verified against official statute text · checked August 20, 2026

The amount claimed is wrong

Disputing the specific dollar amount — fees, interest calculations, or payments not credited — is a legitimate response, not an admission that you owe nothing.

If a judgment is entered: wage garnishment and Florida’s head-of-household exemption

This is where Florida law is unusually protective compared to many states. Under Fla. Stat. § 222.11, if you are a “head of family” — meaning you provide more than half the support for a child or other dependent — your wages are exempt from garnishment in specific circumstances, unless you agreed in writing to allow it.

The head-of-household exemption, precisely

If your disposable earnings are $750 a week or less, all of it is exempt if you’re a head of family. Above that, it’s still exempt unless you signed a specific written waiver — which Florida law requires to be in plain, prominent language stating exactly what you’re giving up.

Fla. Stat. § 222.11(2)

Verified against official statute text · checked August 20, 2026

How you actually claim the exemption

When wages are garnished, the clerk is required to send you a notice explaining your right to claim an exemption. You then generally have 20 days from receiving that notice to file a notarized Claim of Exemption with the court and serve it on the creditor. If the creditor doesn’t file a timely objection, the garnishment is dissolved. Because these are short, hard deadlines with a specific form and process, this is exactly the kind of step where a legal aid organization or the Miami-Dade Clerk of Courts’ civil forms can make the difference between keeping your paycheck and not.

Fla. Stat. § 77.041

Verified against official statute text · checked August 20, 2026

If it’s your bank account, not your paycheck

Federal law separately protects certain benefits — Social Security, SSI, VA, and a few other federal benefit types — if they were deposited by direct deposit within the last two months. Your bank is required to check for this automatically and protect that portion of the balance before a garnishment can touch it.

31 CFR Part 212 — U.S. Department of the Treasury

Verified against official regulation text · checked August 20, 2026

Frequently asked questions

Can I be arrested for not paying a debt in Florida?

No. Failing to pay a consumer debt is a civil matter, not a criminal one. You cannot be jailed simply for owing money.

What if I can’t afford an attorney?

Start with our verified directory of Miami-Dade legal aid organizations — several offer free screening for debt-related cases, and Florida’s court system maintains self-help resources for people representing themselves.

Should I just ignore the lawsuit if I know I owe the money?

No — even if you owe the debt, responding lets you raise legitimate issues like the amount claimed, whether the plaintiff can prove ownership of the debt, or whether the statute of limitations has run. Ignoring it guarantees a default judgment with no chance to raise any of that.