Rule 280 Applicability.

If you are being sued over a credit card debt or by a debt buyer trying to collect money you owe, special court rules apply to your case. A debt buyer is a company that purchases old debts from banks or other lenders and then tries to collect that money from you.

These rules only cover civil cases, meaning lawsuits filed in court. They do not apply to every type of debt collection case, just the two types listed: credit card debt and debt buyers collecting consumer debts. A consumer debt is money owed from personal or household purchases, not business debts.

If your case falls into one of these categories, both you and the person or company suing you must follow the additional rules in this section of Illinois law. Those rules are meant to make the process fairer and more transparent for people being sued over these types of debts.