July 10, 2026

There is no statute of limitations on collecting child support arrears in California. None. Interest runs at 10% simple. A $15,000 judgment from 2010 is worth roughly double today, and it’s still fully collectible — wage garnishment, bank levy, license holds, tax intercepts.

If you’re owed, the tools are sitting there unused.

Don’t pay a lawyer to find out what your rights are. Go to JusticePrompt.com and download the child support collection kit and get the free kit. No credit card. No upsell. Just the documents and the law.

Consumer debt defense has an offensive gear most people never engage. The FDCPA is a strict-liability statute with a private right of action, and 15 U.S.C. §1692k is where it bites: actual damages, statutory damages up to $1,000 per action, and — the part that changes everything — mandatory attorney’s fees and costs to a prevailing consumer.

Understand what fee-shifting does to the economics. A collector who called you six times after receiving a cease-communication letter faces a claim where its downside is not $1,000 — it is $1,000 plus tens of thousands in your lawyer’s fees if it litigates and loses. That asymmetry is why FDCPA cases settle early and why consumer attorneys across California take them on contingency with no fee to you. The National Association of Consumer Advocates maintains a find-an-attorney directory for exactly these cases.

What counts as a violation? The statute’s conduct rules are specific: no calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. (§1692c), no continued contact after a written refusal-to-pay or cease letter, no third-party disclosure of your debt, no false threats of suit, arrest, or garnishment (§1692e), no collecting amounts not authorized by the agreement or law (§1692f), and no ignoring a timely validation demand (§1692g). Strict liability means intent doesn’t matter — the violation itself is the case, subject only to a narrow bona fide error defense.

California debtors stack the Rosenthal Act on top: Civil Code §1788.30 adds its own $100–$1,000 penalty and fees, and the two statutes are expressly cumulative per §1788.32.

The evidence discipline: a call log (date, time, number, what was said), saved voicemails, every letter kept, and your own letters sent certified. One year is the FDCPA limitations period (§1692k(d)), so violations must be acted on promptly.

The mindset shift is the point. A harassing collector is not just a problem to endure — it’s a counterclaim accruing value with every improper call. The moment you document instead of argue, the leverage reverses.

Every letter, form, and deadline referenced above is packaged in the free kits at JusticePrompt.com. No credit card, no upsell — the documents and the law, ready to use.

A huge share of California eviction notices are defective — wrong cure period, no proper service, amounts that include late fees the lease doesn’t authorize. A defective notice kills the unlawful detainer. The landlord has to start over, and you’ve bought a month.

Most tenants never check. Check.

Don’t pay a lawyer to find out what your rights are. Go to JusticePrompt.com — the tenant kit walks you through the notice checklist and get the free kit. No credit card. No upsell. Just the documents and the law.

Every debt in California has an expiration date as a lawsuit. For written contracts — credit cards, loans, most consumer agreements — it is four years under Code of Civil Procedure §337. For oral agreements, two years under §339. Once the limitations period runs from the date of breach (usually your first missed payment that was never cured), the creditor’s right to sue is gone.

But “gone” comes with two traps the collection industry exploits daily.

Trap one: revival by payment or acknowledgment. Under CCP §360, a written acknowledgment of the debt, signed by the debtor, or a partial payment, can restart the limitations clock. This is the entire reason collectors on ancient debt push so hard for a “small good-faith payment of $25” or a signed hardship letter “to qualify you for a settlement program.” The payment isn’t about the $25. It’s about converting a legally dead account into a freshly enforceable one. California law now also requires collectors to disclose in writing when a debt is too old to sue on — Civil Code §1788.14(d) — and a dunning letter missing that disclosure is itself a violation. But the safest rule remains: never pay anything on old debt until you’ve confirmed the limitations status in writing.

Trap two: the lawsuit filed anyway. The statute of limitations is an affirmative defense. A court will not raise it for you. Debt buyers file on time-barred debt knowing that if the defendant defaults, the age of the debt never comes up and the judgment issues anyway. The defense must be pleaded in your answer — one checkbox and one sentence on Judicial Council form PLD-C-010 — or it is waived.

Also know: a time-barred debt can still be reported on your credit file for up to seven years from the original delinquency under the federal FCRA, 15 U.S.C. §1681c — the two clocks are independent. Collectors blur them on purpose (“this will stay on your credit forever unless you pay”).

Date of last payment, four-year math, written confirmation, and an answer that pleads the defense. That’s the whole discipline — and it defeats a meaningful share of every junk portfolio.

Every letter, form, and deadline referenced above is packaged in the free kits at JusticePrompt.com. No credit card, no upsell — the documents and the law, ready to use.