Civil action may be brought by the owner of the debt to seek a judgment. The debt collector can bring legal action if they have acquired the debt, otherwise it would be by the creditor.
The FDCPA explicitly permits a debt collector to bring legal action in either the state where the contract creatng the debt was executed, or in the current state of residence of the consumer. However, in most cases, they will seek a judgment in your current state of residence, for several reasons. It simplifies admin mantters such as service of notice if it is done within your current state. Additinally, if they seek and obtan a judgment in another state, it is not enforceable in your current state until they have first gone through a procedure called "domestication of the judgement," which involves filing a copy with the court in your current state, and asking that they make in enforceable in your state.
That takes time, effort, and $$, so the more direct approach is to simply seek the judgment in your current state.
The statute of limitations that applies in any proceeding is that of the state where the action is being tried.
If action is brought in NYS, it would be the SOL for NYS. However, many state SOL statutes incorporate what are referred to as "borrowing" provisions, which permit the court to use the SOL period of the state where the contract was executed if it is a shorter period than that of the trial court. I believe that NYS has a borrowing provision, which would incorporte the shorted preriod of your prior state as the relevant period,but am not sure. You need to check NYS code on SOL for written contracts to determine if a borrowing provison applies.
As for expiration of SOL and its appllication to your debt, NYS recently enacted new regualtions relating to time barred debts. See 23 NYCRR Part 1.
You may wish to look into the requirements of the new regs. However, chage of residency may complicate their reasonable knowledge of expiration of SOL.
The provisions relating to time barred debt does not become effective until Aug 30, 2015. The others became effective March 3. Key provisions include:
- Debts Where the Statute of Limitations Has Expired: The new regs will, as of August 30, require debt collectors to "maintain reasonable procedures for determining the statute of limitations applicable to a debt it is collecting and whether such statute of limitations has expired." 23 NYCRR § 1.3(a). If a debt collector attempts to collect on a debt for which the statute of limitations has expired, the collector, prior to accepting payment, must provide notice that it believes that the statute of limitations may be expired and that, if the consumer is sued on such a debt, the consumer may be able to prevent a judgment by informing the court that the statute of limitations has expired, and that if the consumer makes a payment on a debt for which the statute of limitations has expired, or admits, affirms, acknowledges, or promises to pay such debt, the statute of limitations may restart.
- Substantiation of Consumer Debts: Under the new regulations, a consumer can request "substantiation" of the debt at any time during the collection process. Once the debt collector receives a request for substantiation, it must cease collection and provide documentation proving the validity of the debt and the creditor's right to collect the debt within 60 days. 23 NYCRR § 1.4.
