Merchant Cash Advance · Business Defense
Sued over a merchant cash advance? We defend your business in court.
MCA funders move fast, and they move on the business and the owner at the same time. We defend merchant cash advance lawsuits in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, and we negotiate from the strength of a case that is being defended.
Served with an MCA lawsuit?
What is already in motion
By the time the summons reaches you, a merchant cash advance funder has usually taken several steps at once. Knowing which ones apply to your case is the difference between reacting and defending.
A confession of judgment
Some MCA agreements contain one. Where it is enforceable, judgment can be entered on the funder's paperwork rather than after a trial. Whether one can be used against you depends on where it was signed, where it is filed, and when.
A UCC lien on your receivables
A UCC-1 filed against the business, often followed by notices to your processor or your customers telling them to route payments to the funder instead of to you.
A frozen account
A restrained operating or merchant account is the first sign many owners get. Payroll and vendor payments stop before the mail arrives.
A claim against you personally
Most MCA agreements carry a personal guarantee, so the case follows the owner individually and not only the business entity.
The response deadline started when you were served, not when you found a lawyer. How to respond to a debt lawsuit walks through the answer and the clock.
Defense
How MCA cases are fought
A merchant cash advance case is a contract case, and contracts have defenses. These are the angles that tend to matter, though which ones are available depends entirely on your agreement and your facts.
Is it really a purchase, or a loan?
An MCA is written as the purchase of future receivables, which is how it sits outside lending rules. Courts look at whether the funder genuinely took the risk of the business failing: whether reconciliation was real, whether there was a fixed term, and what happened on default. Where the agreement functions as a loan, usury and licensing arguments may open up.
Was reconciliation honored?
Many agreements promise to adjust the daily or weekly draw when revenue falls. A funder that ignored or refused a proper reconciliation request may have breached the agreement before the business ever missed a payment.
Procedure, service, and venue
How and where you were served, whether the venue and jurisdiction clauses hold up, and whether the entity that sued is the entity entitled to sue at all.
The numbers behind the demand
Stacked advances, fees added after the fact, misapplied payments, and payoff figures that do not reconcile with what was actually drawn from the account.
The personal guarantee itself
Who signed it, what it covers, and whether the conditions that trigger it were ever met. A guarantee is a contract, and contracts have defenses.
What to look for in an MCA contract covers the clauses these arguments turn on.
Settlement & negotiation
When MCA debt can be settled
Merchant cash advance cases settle often. Funders resolve them short of trial where revenue has genuinely declined, where reconciliation was mishandled, or where several advances are stacked on one business and none of them can be paid.
A workable resolution is usually one of three shapes: a lump sum at a discount, a structured payoff the business can actually carry, or a reduced balance tied to release of the UCC filing and the personal guarantee. Whichever shape it takes, the release belongs in writing, and it should name the lien and the guarantee explicitly.
What moves the number is leverage. A funder negotiating with a business that has appeared and answered is negotiating against the cost and risk of the case it now has to litigate. Settlement here is an outcome of defense, not a substitute for it.
Who you hire matters
MCA negotiators vs. a defense law firm
MCA negotiators and business debt relief companies will call your funder for you. Some of them are effective at it. But a negotiator cannot appear in your case, cannot file an answer, cannot move to vacate a judgment, and cannot stop a deadline from running. If a lawsuit has been filed, those are the only things standing between your business and a default judgment.
We are a law firm, and we defend the case. Negotiation happens inside that defense, on one flat fee, with the funder aware that the alternative to a deal is a contested case.
Debt settlement company or law firm: what each one can actually do
Funders
MCA funders we defend against
If one of these names is on your summons, start here. The directory covers the rest of the merchant cash advance funders we see filing in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.
- Sued by Mantis Funding LLC?Merchant Cash Advance Provider
- Sued by Itria Ventures LLC?Merchant Cash Advance Provider
- Sued by Funding Metrics LLC?Merchant Cash Advance Provider
- Sued by Velocity Capital Group LLC?Merchant Cash Advance Provider
- Sued by Forward Financing?Merchant Cash Advance Provider
- Sued by Fora Financial?Merchant Cash Advance Provider
Browse the full directory and open the MCA Lenders tab for every funder we cover.
FAQ
Merchant cash advance questions
A response deadline starts running the day you are served, and it is short. If it passes without a written answer, the funder can ask the court for a default judgment, which opens the door to restraints on business accounts and enforcement against any personal guarantor. Answering on time is what keeps your defenses alive.
Read the full guideOften, yes. Funders regularly resolve cases short of trial, particularly where revenue has genuinely declined, where reconciliation was mishandled, or where several advances are stacked on one business. What changes the number is leverage: a funder negotiating against a business that has appeared and answered is pricing in the outcome of the case.
Read the full guideA negotiator or debt relief company can make calls on your behalf. It cannot appear in your case, file an answer, move to vacate a judgment, or stop a deadline from running. Once a lawsuit is filed, only a law firm can do the things that actually protect the business.
Read the full guideIt is a clause in which the borrower agrees in advance that judgment may be entered against them if the funder declares a default, without the usual chance to defend first. Their use has been restricted in recent years, and whether one is enforceable against your business depends on the agreement and the state involved.
A UCC filing gives a funder a claimed security interest in business assets, and notices can be sent to your processor or customers. Freezing an account generally requires a judgment or another court order first. Which lien you are facing, and what it actually allows, changes the response.
Read the full guideIf you signed a personal guarantee, the funder will say yes. Most MCA agreements include one, which is why these cases reach the owner's own assets. The guarantee's scope, and whether what happened actually triggered it, are questions worth a close read of the contract.
Read the full guideThis page is general information about merchant cash advance litigation, not legal advice, and does not create an attorney-client relationship. Deadlines and defenses vary by court and by the facts of your case.
Your deadline is running
Every day you wait is a day the funder spends building its position and yours gets harder to defend.
Real courtroom defense
A licensed law firm. One flat fee. MCA and creditor defense in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.