Sued for a Credit card from 6 yrs ago!!!

I need to clarify a couple things.

1. What state are you in?
2. What exactly are these "court papers"? Are they legit? Did you check with your clerk of courts to see if there's a suit filed against you? Is this a summons? Who served you?

Yes they are legit, its a summons of complaint and I am in michigan. oh, not sure who served them, just a lady said they pay her to deliver these papers....

In almost all states, you can be sued on an unpaid debt forever. Debt never dies. However, states have statute of limitations on the legal collectibility of a debt once their state SOL period has expired.
So the issue is most likely not one of the propriety of them bringing legal action against you, but one of how you will defend their action.

When you go to court, before any discussion of the merits of their case are heard, you have the opportunity to raise the issue of its legal collectibility. If you provide an SOL defense and substantiate the date of running of the SOL, and that it has expired, the court will simply award you summary judgment based on that overriding and absolute legal defense. Case over.

So, has SOL expired?
If you cant prove an SOL defense, it will go to the merits. Then, you must provide evidence to the court, if you assert that the account/debt is not yours, to prove that. Courts have a pre-trial process called discovery which permits you to receive any information from the plaintifff relevant to your defense. So, before trial, you should be lining up your defense, and then obtaining the necessary documentation from the plaintiff necessary to support your defense. You motion the court for discovery of whatever you need.

If you feel that you are unlikely to prevail in court, then the best thing to do is to make a pre-trial offer of payment of the alleged debt. This will forgo a court trial. A judgement is a legal holding of the court against you, so if the matter is resolved prior to trial, no judgment can be posted to your CR.

OK, first things first.

1. What month of 2005 are they using? The statute of limitations for debt is 6 years in MI so, they may be trying to get this in under the wire.

2. You need to respond to the summons within the timeframe they've given and file it with the clerk of courts

3. Answer each complaint truthfully and format your response in the same manner the summons is formatted.

4. Have you received any notification about this alleged debt prior? A letter? Anything before the summons?

5. Who's suing? Is it a collection agency, junk debt buyer, original creditor?

They're going to have to prove you owe this debt. If they can't, you'll want to ask for dismissal with prejudice.

Oh, also, is this listed on your credit report?