oh-consumer-debt

name: oh-consumer-debt description: > Use for Ohio consumer-debt defense — debt-buyer suits, collection actions. Covers Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act (R.C. Chapter 1345) with treble damages + mandatory fees, 2-year CSPA SOL, FDCPA + Reg F overlays, chain-of-title doctrine, Ohio UCC Article 9 (R.C. Chapter 1309), and 6-year SOL on written contracts (R.C. 2305.06). NO collection-agency licensure in Ohio — defenses lean on chain-of-title and FDCPA. Triggers: "Ohio consumer debt", "Ohio CSPA", "R.C. 1345 treble damages", "Ohio chain of title", "Ohio debt buyer", "medical debt Ohio". version: 0.2.1

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

1. Original cardmember agreement signed by consumer.
2. All monthly statements covering the account life.
3. Each Assignment / Bill of Sale in the chain (typically: original creditor → debt-buyer-warehouse → plaintiff; sometimes 3-4 hops).
4. Account-level data file accompanying each Bill of Sale (the actual transaction record proving THIS account was in the portfolio sold).
5. Affidavit of seller-side custodian at each hop (not just buyer's custodian).
6. 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) /
• 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) triage
• oh-discovery — discovery mechanics
• oh-draft-motion — Civ. R. 56 / Civ. R. 12(B)(6) / Civ. R. 60(B) frameworks
• oh-post-judgment — exemptions + garnishment defense
• oh-fact-check — Ohio public-domain citation format
• oh-statewide-format — Civ. R. 10 caption + filing

Critical SOLs in one place