Ohio Consumer Debt — Statutory + Common-Law Defenses
NOT LEGAL ADVICE. Verify every cite against current
R.C. text and current case law before filing. The Ohio
CSPA has been amended materially in 2012, 2021, and 2023.
Five fact-pattern triage
When a consumer-debt complaint arrives, triage to one of
these patterns. Each maps to a defense playbook.
1. Debt-buyer (post-charge-off) action
Plaintiff is Midland Funding LLC, LVNV Funding LLC,
Portfolio Recovery Associates, Cavalry SPV I,
Crown Asset Management, Unifund CCR LLC, or similar.
Plaintiff is not the original creditor (which would be
Citibank, Capital One, Synchrony, Discover, Chase, etc.).
Core defenses:
- Chain of title — plaintiff must prove every assignment
from original creditor through any intermediate
purchasers. Ohio's UCC at R.C. 1309.406 governs the
rights of an assignee.
- Account-stated foundation — plaintiff usually pleads
"account stated" because it lacks the underlying signed
contract. Force them to produce the original card-member
agreement under R.C. 1303.31 (UCC Article 3 negotiable-
instrument requirements) or via Civ. R. 1002 best-evidence.
- Authentication — affidavits of "custodian" employed
by the debt buyer (not the original creditor) routinely
fail Civ. R. 803(6) / 901 foundation. LVNV Funding, LLC
v. Henderson, 2018-Ohio-3535 (1st Dist.) is the leading
cite for affidavit-of-debt failures in Ohio.
- FDCPA counterclaim — 15 U.S.C. § 1692e (false
representations) and § 1692f (unfair practices) are
routine counterclaim grounds.
2. Original-creditor action
Plaintiff is the bank that issued the card or made the
loan (Capital One, Discover Bank, etc.) — not a debt buyer.
Core defenses:
- SOL — 6 years on written contracts under R.C.
2305.06; 4 years on Ohio UCC Article 3 negotiable-
instruments suits under R.C. 1303.16.
- Account-stated — original creditor's monthly
statements can establish account-stated if undisputed for
reasonable time.
- TILA / Reg Z — billing-error disputes raised within
60 days under 15 U.S.C. § 1666 must be honored.
- Choice of law — many card agreements choose
Delaware, South Dakota, or Virginia. Choice-of-law clause
may shift the controlling SOL and interest cap.
3. Medical debt action
Plaintiff is a hospital system or its assignee.
Core defenses:
- No-Surprises Act — federal NSA limits balance-billing
for out-of-network emergency care.
- R.C. 1751.60 — Ohio prohibits HMO-contracted
providers from billing enrollees beyond copays.
- Reasonable-value challenge — medical debt is contract
for services; charges must reflect reasonable value if no
agreed price.
- R.C. Chapter 3727 hospital-debt rules.
4. Auto-deficiency action
Plaintiff is auto-finance company after repossession.
Core defenses:
- Commercially reasonable sale — UCC R.C. 1309.610(B)
requires commercially reasonable disposition. Coxson v.
Commonwealth Bank, 43 Ohio App.3d 31, is leading cite.
- Notice of disposition — R.C. 1309.611 requires pre-
sale notice to debtor; failure to give notice bars or
reduces deficiency under R.C. 1309.626.
- Retail Installment Sales Act — R.C. Chapter 1317
(
oh-law-references/references/oh-statutes-debt/RC-Chapter-1317.md):
most auto financing is a retail installment contract, so
RISA's contract-form and notice/cure requirements apply on
top of Article 9.
- Lien perfection on the title — R.C. Chapter 4505
(
RC-Chapter-4505.md); the security interest is perfected
by notation on the certificate of title (R.C. 4505.13).
Test whether the plaintiff actually holds a perfected,
properly assigned interest.
- Insurance / GAP credit — verify any GAP insurance was
applied before deficiency calculated.
5. Garnishment / supplemental proceedings
Default judgment already entered; plaintiff is now
collecting via wage garnishment, bank attachment, or
debtor exam.
Core defenses:
- R.C. 2329.66 exemptions — Ohio personal property
exemption is generous (wildcard $1,475; tools of trade
$2,800; household goods $13,400; homestead $161,375 as
of 2024 adjustment). Ohio uses state exemptions, not
federal Bankruptcy Code exemptions.
- CCPA garnishment cap — 15 U.S.C. § 1673 caps wage
garnishment at 25% of disposable earnings or amount above
30x federal minimum wage.
- R.C. 2329.07 — judgment dormant after 5 years if not
executed upon; revival required.
Ohio CSPA — the centerpiece counterclaim
The Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act (R.C. Chapter
1345) is the Ohio analog of the federal FDCPA + Washington's
CPA and is substantially more powerful than the federal
FDCPA on its own.
Coverage
- R.C. 1345.01(A) defines "consumer transaction" — sale
/ lease / assignment / award / other transfer of an
item / service to an individual for personal / family /
household use.
- R.C. 1345.01(C) defines "supplier" — a seller,
lessor, assignor, or other person engaged in the business
of effecting consumer transactions. Debt collectors and
debt buyers are "suppliers" within the CSPA per Brown
v. Liberty Clubs, Inc., 45 Ohio St.3d 191 (1989), and
Celebrezze v. United Research, Inc., 19 Ohio App.3d 49.
Prohibited acts
- R.C. 1345.02 — unfair / deceptive acts in connection
with a consumer transaction.
- R.C. 1345.03 — unconscionable acts.
- OAC 109:4-3-XX — Attorney General's substantive
regulations adding per-industry prohibitions; debt-
collection-specific rules at OAC 109:4-3-11.
Damages
- R.C. 1345.09(A) — actual damages.
- R.C. 1345.09(B) — election of remedy: (1) triple
actual damages, OR (2) $200 per violation. Three times
damages with no cap is the headline.
- R.C. 1345.09(F) — attorney's fees are mandatory
on prevailing-consumer CSPA judgments where supplier
acted knowingly. Bittner v. Tri-County Toyota, 58 Ohio
St.3d 143 (1991) is the leading fee-award standard
(lodestar with Ohio modifications).
SOL
- R.C. 1345.10(C) — 2 years from occurrence of
violation OR from rescission becoming impossible /
inapplicable.
- This is 2-year, not 6-year — common pitfall.
Federal overlays
The federal layer applies in parallel:
- FDCPA (15 U.S.C. §§ 1692-1692p) — applies to all
third-party debt collectors (debt buyers, collection
agencies, attorneys collecting consumer debt). Original
creditors collecting their own debt are excluded.
- Reg F (12 C.F.R. Part 1006) — CFPB's 2021 codified
rules: 7-7-7 contact limit, validation notice, time-of-
day restrictions.
- FCRA (15 U.S.C. §§ 1681-1681x) — credit-report
furnisher rules; § 1681s-2(b) provides private right of
action after dispute via CRA.
- TCPA (47 U.S.C. § 227) — robocall + autodialed-text
restrictions; collection calls within scope.
Verbatim text for all federal sources lives in
oh-law-references/references/federal-debt-laws/ (symlinked
into the shared claude-legal-federal-laws plugin).
Chain of title — debt-buyer defense backbone
Every debt-buyer plaintiff must prove unbroken chain from
original creditor. Build the discovery plan around:
What to demand
- Original cardmember agreement signed by consumer.
- All monthly statements covering the account life.
- Each Assignment / Bill of Sale in the chain (typically:
original creditor → debt-buyer-warehouse → plaintiff;
sometimes 3-4 hops).
- Account-level data file accompanying each Bill of Sale
(the actual transaction record proving THIS account was
in the portfolio sold).
- Affidavit of seller-side custodian at each hop (not just
buyer's custodian).
- Power-of-attorney chains where applicable.
Common failures
- Generic Bill of Sale without account-level data file.
- Custodian affidavit from buyer purporting to
authenticate seller's records — fails Civ. R. 803(6) /
901.
- Missing intermediate assignment (Citibank → CCS Inc.
→ LVNV → Resurgent, but only CCS→LVNV produced).
- Account-level data with discrepancy in charge-off
date, charge-off balance, or last-payment date.
Discovery playbook
The oh-discovery skill covers the procedural framework.
Subject-specific:
- RFP bank for debt buyers — request the chain
components above.
- RFA bank — request admissions on each foundation
element (authenticity, custody, completeness).
- Interrogatories — Ohio Civ. R. 33(A) caps at 40
including subparts; allocate carefully.
- Motion to compel — Civ. R. 37; require meet-and-
confer per Civ. R. 37(E).
Composition with other oh- skills
oh-first-30-days — answer / Civ. R. 12(B)(6) triageoh-discovery — discovery mechanicsoh-draft-motion — Civ. R. 56 / Civ. R. 12(B)(6) /
Civ. R. 60(B) frameworksoh-post-judgment — exemptions + garnishment defenseoh-fact-check — Ohio public-domain citation formatoh-statewide-format — Civ. R. 10 caption + filing
Critical SOLs in one place
| Claim | SOL | Statute |
|---|
| Written contract | 6 yr | R.C. 2305.06 |
| Oral contract | 6 yr | R.C. 2305.07 |
| Account stated | 6 yr | R.C. 2305.07 |
| UCC negotiable instrument | 4 yr | R.C. 1303.16 |
| Tort (personal injury) | 2 yr | R.C. 2305.10 |
| Libel / slander | 1 yr | R.C. 2305.11 |
| Ohio CSPA | 2 yr | R.C. 1345.10 |
| FDCPA | 1 yr | 15 U.S.C. § 1692k(d) |
| FCRA | 2 yr (discovery rule) | 15 U.S.C. § 1681p |
| Judgment enforcement | 5 yr (renewable) | R.C. 2329.07 |