Called into court

[SOGGIE]

OP: The best thing you can do is to first buy yourself some time until you gather your supporting evidence. This can be done by requesting a continuance (original court date move/continued to a later date). Ask the judge for a continuance. You will most likely have to provide a reason for the continuance request. Let that reason be that you need more time to prepare your case--as you feel the debt is beyond your state's statute of limitation. In the meantime, try to locate any documents that may support such. If the debt is within the SOL, take out an equity loan against your property if the plaintiff is willing to enter into a payment agreement. If the plaintiff is willing to enter into an agreement, the plaintiff can request case dismissal.

[RobertEG]

In my opinion, I recommend obtaining legal counsel far prior to trial date.

Issues of SOL, continuance, likelihood of prevaiing at trial, fiing motions to reset the trial date, etc. are best handled by legal counsel, not forum recommendations.

You could well show in court and proceed to trial.  If you admit to owing the debt, the outcome seems kinda obvious to me.