Sues in
12 of the 12 states we counted
Are they filing more, or less?
Their filings rose sharply between 2017 and 2024 — from 12,327 lawsuits to 48,070, a change of +290%.
Counted across all twelve states with published files. A company that is filing more is buying more debt; one that is filing less has usually moved the accounts on to somebody else.
Where they file, and how big they are there
They are the single most active debt plaintiff in California, responsible for 9.1% of every debt lawsuit filed in the state. Nothing here is estimated.
| State | Lawsuits | Rank | Share of docket | Total sought | Avg case | Had a lawyer | Closed |
|---|
| California | 261,686 | #1 | 9.1% | — | — | 1% | 85% |
| Indiana | 54,738 | #2 | 5% | $90.2M | $1,648 | 2.1% | 67% |
| Arizona | 44,199 | #3 | 9.37% | $41.6M | $941 | 0.74% | 96% |
| Virginia | 40,970 | #3 | 4% | $66.7M | $1,628 | 0.55% | 99% |
| Minnesota | 37,965 | #4 | 5.3% | $102.8M | $2,707 | — | 93% |
| Texas | 37,312 | #3 | 11% | $25.6M | $686 | 7% | 38% |
| Missouri | 23,333 | #2 | 8.61% | — | — | 3.99% | 94% |
| Connecticut | 19,064 | #5 | 7.19% | $35.3M | $1,851 | 0.66% | 100% |
| Pennsylvania | 16,135 | #3 | 12% | $19.5M | $1,211 | 5% | 50% |
| Ohio | 6,998 | #2 | 11% | $14.4M | $2,063 | — | 65% |
| North Dakota | 3,135 | #9 | 3.7% | $7.9M | $2,531 | 0.38% | 97% |
| Colorado | 3,086 | #7 | 4.6% | $6.5M | $2,097 | 0.03% | 48% |
Filed under PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES LLC, PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES, LLC, PORTFOLIO RECOVERY ASSOCIATES, LLC and 33 more spellings. Share of docket is their portion of all debt lawsuits in that state. A dash under “had a lawyer” means the court did not record it — Minnesota records it on almost no cases. “Closed” is the share of their cases in that state the court has finished with.
Almost nobody they sue has a lawyer
In Colorado, across 3,086 of their cases where the court recorded it, only 0.03% of defendants had legal representation. 48% of those cases are already closed.
That number is the whole business model in one figure. On the other side of every one of those cases sat a lawyer who does this all day.
What people complain about
65,017 complaints have been filed against Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC with the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The database is public and updated daily, and it is the clearest record of how a company behaves outside court.
| Most common complaint | Count |
|---|
| Attempts to collect debt not owed | 19,923 |
| Written notification about debt | 9,005 |
| Took or threatened to take negative or legal action | 7,353 |
| Incorrect information on your report | 6,263 |
Recorded under Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC in the CFPB database.
Where the complaints come from
| State | Complaints | In our court files? |
|---|
| Texas | 8,277 | yes — see the table above |
| Florida | 7,807 | no published court data |
| California | 7,025 | yes — see the table above |
| Georgia | 4,821 | no published court data |
| New York | 4,256 | no published court data |
3 of these 5 states do not publish the court files we count, so Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC may well be filing there too — we simply cannot see it. Complaint volume is the only signal we have for those states.
Does complaining about them work?
Sometimes. Of the 65,012 complaints the CFPB has closed against them, 40.2% ended in the company giving the person something back — money, a correction, or the debt withdrawn.
| How the complaint was closed | Count | Share |
|---|
| Closed with explanation | 37,514 | 57.7% |
| Closed with non-monetary relief | 26,119 | 40.2% |
| In progress | 1,379 | 2.1% |
“Closed with explanation” means they answered and changed nothing, and it is the most common outcome everywhere. But a complaint is free, takes about fifteen minutes, and the company is required to respond — which is more than a phone call gets you.
Counted across the 65,012 closed complaints recorded under Portfolio Recovery Associates, LLC in the federal database.
How much is a lawsuit from them usually for?
The average across all 548,621 of their cases is $748. People arrive at this page afraid of losing a house. The reality in these files is usually a few hundred to a few thousand dollars — and a case that size is not worth a company fighting properly. It is worth filing in volume and hoping nobody answers.
Is Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC a scam?
No. They are a real company, owned by PRA Group, and if they have sued you the lawsuit is real too. We counted 548,621 lawsuits filed under their name in the public court records of twelve states. But "real" does not mean "always right".
65,017 complaints have been filed against Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC with the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The most common is attempts to collect debt not owed. That database is public, updated daily, and is the clearest record of how a company behaves outside a courtroom.
What that means in practice: the fact that Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC says you owe an amount does not establish that you owe that amount. Consumer debts are sold in bulk spreadsheets, sometimes several times over, and the paperwork proving who owns what is frequently thin.
But what if the papers look fake?
Some real summonses look like junk mail, and some scam letters are built to imitate them. The way to tell is not to guess from the envelope. Look the case up in your own county's court records. Every state has a free public search. If a case number exists and names you, it is real. If nothing exists, the letter is not a lawsuit — whatever it looks like.
They appear in court files under 36 different spellings, so search a distinctive part of the name rather than the whole thing.
Who does Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC collect for?
Nobody, in the usual sense. Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC is a debt buyer, which is a different business from a collection agency working on commission. They purchase portfolios of charged-off consumer accounts — mostly credit cards — from banks and lenders, typically for a few cents on the dollar. Once bought, the debt is theirs, and anything they recover is their own revenue.
This is why the account may be one you barely remember, under a bank's name rather than theirs, and several years old. It is also why the paperwork matters: a buyer several owners removed from the original lender has to be able to show the chain of ownership — if somebody makes them.
Should you pay them?
That depends on three things, and it is worth spending ten minutes on them before you send any money.
Is the debt actually yours, in that amount?
Ask them to validate it in writing. You have a right to that, and a collector several owners removed from the original lender sometimes cannot produce it.
Is it too old to sue on?
Every state limits how long a creditor has to bring a case. Once that period has run out the debt is time-barred and cannot be enforced in court — but only if you raise it. A judge will not raise it for you.
Would paying restart the clock?
In many states, making a payment on an old debt restarts the time limit from zero. A small payment made to be cooperative can revive a debt that was legally dead.
The most common expensive mistake
Paying a little to make the calls stop, on a debt that was already too old to sue on. That single payment can hand the collector years of fresh legal life over the full balance.
What happens to the people they sue
70%
of people sued over a debt never respond at all
Under 10%
of defendants have a lawyer — in some states under 1%
1 in 4
cases are dismissed when the person simply files an answer
When nobody responds the company wins automatically. That is a default judgment, and it means the court never asks anyone to prove they own your debt, that the amount is right, or that the time limit has not expired. A judge checks those things only if you show up and ask.
A study of 2.2 million debt cases in California found only 8.8% of people ever filed a response, and that between 95% and 99% had no attorney. And out of all 2.2 million, fewer than 5,000 ever went to trial — less than two-tenths of one percent. These cases are decided on paperwork, and most are decided because one side sent none.
If you have been served with court papers
Find your dateThere is a deadline printed on your papers, usually 14 to 30 days from the day you were served, differing by state and court. Miss it and the case is over — they win by default and nothing else on this page matters.
Filing an answer is one page. You do not need a lawyer, and in most courts it costs nothing or very little. In it you deny the claim and ask them to prove they own the debt and that the amount is right. That single page moves you out of the 70% who lose automatically.
What happens, and when
| Stage | What happens |
|---|
| Day 0 | You are served with a summons and complaint. |
| Days 1–30 | Your window to file an answer. The exact number is on your papers. |
| If you answer | The case continues. Around one in four are dismissed. |
| If you do not | Default judgment. They win without proving anything. |
| After judgment | Wage garnishment, bank levy, sometimes a lien. This is where the damage happens. |
What they can take — and what they cannot
Wages are only partly reachable. Federal law caps garnishment for ordinary consumer debt at the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings, or the amount by which weekly earnings exceed 30 times the federal minimum wage — protecting roughly $217.50 a week regardless. Many states protect more.
Federal benefits are generally protected. Social Security, SSI, veterans' and most federal benefits are shielded from ordinary debt collectors, and banks must automatically protect a period of directly deposited benefits.
Being uncollectable is a real position. If your only income is protected and you have no attachable assets, a judgment can sit for years collecting nothing. Worth knowing before you borrow to settle.
Check the court records yourself — free
- Search your full name in the county where you live. That is almost always where a debt case is filed.
- A real case has a case number, a filing date and both parties named. If a letter quotes no case number, or it returns nothing, it is not a lawsuit.
- Check the service record. Cases proceed against people never actually handed the papers.
- Look before you are sued. Many find out years later when a paycheck shrinks.
Free help exists in every state
Fewer than one in ten people sued over a debt has a lawyer, and most assume that is because lawyers cost money. Free civil legal aid exists in every state and handles consumer debt, and many courts run self-help centres that will read your papers with you at no charge. People with representation win 53% of the time against 19% without.
How to contact them — and how to check them
If you contact Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC, do it in writing and keep a copy. Anything agreed on a phone call is difficult to prove later, and a written dispute triggers obligations that a phone call does not.
We do not publish payment addresses. They change, and a wrong one costs somebody a payment — use the address printed on the letter or the court papers you were actually sent.
Work out your deadline
Tell us your state and the date you were served. We will show your deadline, the form your court uses, and what happened to other people sued by Portfolio Recovery Associates LLC.
Other debt buyers in these court records
| Company | Lawsuits counted | CFPB complaints |
|---|
| LVNV Funding LLC | 577,491 | 70,616 |
| Midland Funding LLC | 381,970 | 66,155 |
| Midland Credit Management | 358,503 | 66,155 |
| Cavalry SPV | 246,957 | 6,290 |
| CACH LLC | 109,662 | — |
| Jefferson Capital Systems LLC | 93,377 | 52,046 |
| Velocity Investments LLC | 53,685 | 2,832 |
| Credit Corp Solutions Inc | 47,780 | — |
See all 341 companies counted across the twelve states with published court files.
Where these numbers come from
- Filing counts, amounts, representation rates — Debt Collection Lab at Princeton University; state court files for all twelve published states. Downloaded 29 August 2026.
- Complaint counts and issues — CFPB Consumer Complaint Database, public and updated daily.
- Outcome study — One-Sided Litigation, Debt Collection Lab, 2023 · 2,277,507 records. National rates — Pew. Win rates — Utah study. Garnishment — federal Consumer Credit Protection Act.
We publish our method and correct mistakes for free. Default judgment rates are recorded inconsistently between courts and undercounted in several states, so we do not publish them per company.
Information, not legal advice. Deadlines and defences vary by state and court.
Counted and written by Ellis Warner · Figures from public court records, last checked 29 August 2026 · Tell us if a number is wrong