MyCivilHelp — Sued for a debt in Missouri? Be ready for your court date.

A man at his kitchen table at night, hands clasped, looking at a calendar — Most people find out what the date meant after it's gone. RSMo 517.041: the summons commands you to appear on a date 10 to 60 days after service. RSMo 517.131: not appearing that day is a default judgment.

Your court date

How long do you actually have?

In Missouri there is no 20-day count. The summons prints a court date, and everything you want to say in writing is due by then. Enter the date on your summons.

The court date printed on your summons

Have you been served?

Yes, I have the papers Not served yet

—pick a date

Your court date appears here, with the exact day of the week and what is due by then.

Read from the date you enter, not computed; the docket on Case.net is the record that controls, and a judge can continue a case to a later date. Always confirm your own date with the court — we'll help you check, free.

The cost of doing nothing

What silence costs.

In one week of September 2026 we counted 1,406 new suits on account in six Missouri metro courts — 678 of them by six debt buyers.¹ They file in bulk because most people never show up. A judgment grows at 9% a year, and it can be collected straight out of your wages.

How much are they suing you for?

Your take-home pay per week — optional

Doing nothing vs. answering

Judgment against you—

After three years of statutory interest—

Your written response, with us$149

A woman on the limestone steps of a courthouse holding a folder of documents, calm and confident — Missouri's associate courts hear these cases with informal pleadings, on purpose. The rules that protect you are written down, and they don't change because you don't have a lawyer.

Your rights

What the law gives you.

A lawsuit is a claim, not a verdict. Before a judge signs anything, the company suing you has a list to get through. Yours is shorter.

The collector's job

Prove the account is yours
Prove it owns the account: every sale from the original bank down to the company suing you
Prove the amount, charge by charge, fee by fee
Prove it sued in time — five years for most contract claims, ten on a written promise to pay
Prove you were properly served

A debt buyer that paid about four cents on the dollar has to do all of this before a judgment can be entered against you.

Your job

File your written defenses before the court date on your summons
Show up on that date

We prepare the first one, and a one-page sheet for the second. You sign on your phone and file it yourself.

Nothing is decided yet.A lawsuit is a claim, not a verdict. A default judgment can only be entered against someone who was properly served and does not appear on the court date.RSMo 517.131

You are not required to file an Answer to avoid default.In these cases the petition's claims count as denied even if you file nothing — but you must appear on the court date, and anything you want to raise as a defense must be in writing by then.RSMo 517.031(2)

The contract they attached is the exception.If the collector filed a document it says you signed, it comes into evidence as is — unless you deny signing it in a written pleading or affidavit first. That is the whole reason a written response matters.RSMo 517.132

Their records have a deadline too.Business records a collector wants to use at trial must be served on you, with a records-custodian affidavit, at least seven days before trial — or they stay out.RSMo 490.692

Old debt has a time limit.Missouri gives five years for most contract claims and ten for an action on a written promise to pay money; which one applies is argued case by case. A suit filed too late can be defended on that ground alone.RSMo 516.120, 516.110

Your paycheck has a floor.Even after a judgment, garnishment is capped at a quarter of take-home pay — a tenth if you are the head of a family living in Missouri — and never touches the first thirty hours of federal minimum wage each week.RSMo 525.030

Some money can't be touched.Social Security, SSI, veterans' and disability benefits are protected by federal law wherever they're deposited.42 U.S.C. §407 · 38 U.S.C. §5301

Collectors have rules too.Federal law bars false statements, threats, and calls before 8 am or after 9 pm, and gives you 30 days from a collector's first notice to demand proof in writing.15 U.S.C. §1692c, e, g

A judgment grows.Money judgments in Missouri carry nine percent interest a year from the day they are entered until they are paid — more if the contract rate was higher.RSMo 408.040

They paid pennies for this.The Federal Trade Commission's study of the industry found debt buyers paid about 4 cents per dollar of face value, and that sellers limited what account documents buyers could get afterwards.FTC, 2013

This is information about how Missouri's rules work, in plain English. It is not advice about what you should do in your case. We prepare the documents you choose to file, and we'll tell you when we think a lawyer should look at yours.

The package

What we prepare, and how it works.

Text us your cause numberWe confirm the case in the public record and text you back, usually the same day.

We read your court recordCourt, case number, plaintiff, the petition, the summons and your court date. Then we ask you the few questions only you can answer.

You review and sign on your phoneEverything is prepared for your case. Sign it with your finger. No printer needed.

You file it, then you show upE-file it or hand it to the clerk before your court date, and appear on the day. We stay on text and email until it's done.

Page one of a sample Answer prepared by MyCivilHelp for a fictitious defendant, watermarked SAMPLE — Page one of a real Answer from our builder, for a fictitious defendant. Yours carries your court, your case number, and the choices you make.

$149flat, for the whole package

Answer and affirmative defensesYour written response for your court and case number, with any defense you choose to raise, filed before the court date as RSMo 517.031 requires.
Denial of the attached documents, with certificate of serviceThe written denial RSMo 517.132 requires, so the collector's paperwork is not admitted as is — it has to prove it owns your debt and that the amount is right.
Court-date sheetOne page: where, when, what to bring, what to say when your case is called, and what the collector has to show the judge.
Filing instructionsE-file or hand it in at the clerk's window, step by step, before your court date.
What happens nextWhat the collector may do before and after the court date, and what each notice means.
Questions answered by text and emailUntil it's filed, and after.

No printer? Sign it on your phone, free. Your file never leaves your device.

Start with your case number Pay $149 now

You review it, you sign it, you file it, you stay in control. We don't give legal advice or promise an outcome — we prepare the documents you choose to file, and we get the details right.

About us

Who we are — and who we aren't.

MyCivilHelp is the Indiana and Missouri service of Tx Civil Help Inc, which has prepared debt-defense documents for people sued by debt buyers since 2025. We are not a law firm and we will never pretend to be one.

Founder & software developer

Uma Maheshwar Reddy Thipparthi

Uma founded Tx Civil Help in 2025 after seeing how routinely people lose debt cases by default: beaten by a missed deadline rather than by the facts. The company was built around a single idea: the paperwork that protects you shouldn't cost more than the debt you're being sued over.

He wrote the software that reads the public docket, counts the deadline and prepares each package, and he sets how we operate: flat, published pricing instead of hourly billing, plain English instead of legalese, and a written reply to every person who contacts us, whether or not they ever become a client.

Uma is not an attorney, and we do not give legal advice. We prepare court documents at your direction.

View founder profile on LinkedIn

We'd rather you pick the right option than the one that pays us. Here is every route, including the free ones.

Do nothingEverythingDefault judgment. Garnishment can follow. This is the outcome in most of these cases — it's what the collector's business model counts on.

Hire an attorney$1,000+The strongest option if your case is large or complicated — and we'll tell you when we think it is.

Online form generator$0–$67You answer a questionnaire and software fills a template. Reading the record and getting the details right are on you.

Do it yourselfFreeAbsolutely possible. Missouri's associate courts accept informal pleadings, so you draft the response. The Missouri Bar lists resources; legal aid may help if you qualify.

MyCivilHelp$149We read your actual court record, prepare the complete package for your case, and answer your questions by text and email until it's filed.

How did you know I was sued?

Missouri court filings are public record from the day they're filed. We read the public docket on Case.net — the same record you can search yourself at courts.mo.gov, which is exactly why we hand you the case number and ask you to check.

What if I haven't been served yet?

Then you're in the best position of anyone reading this. The court date is set when you're served, so you can have the response ready and file it the moment the summons arrives.

Is $149 really the whole price?

Yes — that is our fee, not the debt. No hourly billing, no percentage, no charge for questions. Any court filing fee is the court's and we tell you what it is before you pay us.

What if I actually owe the money?

Plenty of people do, and filing an Answer is still worth it. An Answer doesn't claim you owe nothing — it requires the plaintiff to prove its case: that it actually owns your debt, and that the amount is right. Debt buyers purchase accounts in bulk and the paperwork is often thin.

It also keeps you in the conversation. A defendant who shows up can discuss the case; a default judgment is simply entered against you.

I already have a judgment against me. Is it over?

Not necessarily. Missouri lets a person ask the court to set a default judgment aside in certain situations, within time limits that depend on the reason. Whether that applies to you depends on the record. Text us the case number and we'll tell you what the docket shows and what the options are, at no charge.

Who is behind MyCivilHelp?

Tx Civil Help Inc, a Texas corporation founded in 2025 by Uma Maheshwar Reddy Thipparthi, who runs it today. You can reach us at [email protected] or by text at (888) 396-7107. Texas is where we started; Indiana and Missouri are where we work next.

Before you trust us

Worried this is a scam? Good. Check.

A text about a lawsuit from a company you've never heard of should make you suspicious. Every item below is a record we don't control. Check them, then decide.

The company is on the public record

Tx Civil Help Inc is a Texas corporation, Secretary of State file no. 806499657, at 5900 Balcones Dr #13025, Austin, TX 78731. Search the name on the Texas Comptroller's own site.

Search the Texas Comptroller

A named owner you can look up

Uma Maheshwar Reddy Thipparthi founded the company in 2025 and runs it today. His professional profile is public, and the company he runs is the one that will be preparing your documents.

Uma on LinkedIn

Your case is on the state's site

We only know what the court published. Look your case number up at the top of this page, then check the same number yourself on Case.net, run by the Missouri judiciary — the petition and summons are there as PDFs.

Open Case.net

Payment goes through Stripe

Card details never come to us. The receipt says Tx Civil Help Inc, the charge is $149, once, and there is no subscription. The Texas site takes payment the same way.

See the Texas site

What we will never ask forYour Social Security number, your bank login, or a card number by text or email. And we never ask you to pay before you've checked your case on the state's site.

How we reach youTexts come from (888) 396-7107 and email from [email protected]. We don't phone you; anything else isn't us. Text us before you decide anything. Verifying costs nothing.

Step-by-step instructions for Case.net, and a case-number lookup, are on the verify page.

Text message updates

Get case updates by text

Give us your mobile number and we'll text you about your case — deadline reminders, answers to your questions, and confirmation when your documents are ready. This is opt-in: we only text people who ask us to.

SMS terms & consent

How you opt in. We send text messages only to people who have asked us to: by submitting the form on this page, by texting us first, or by giving us your mobile number when you contact us by email or through this site. We do not send text messages to people who have not opted in.

What we send. Case notifications, deadline reminders, replies to your questions, and confirmation when your documents are ready. Message frequency varies by your case. Message and data rates may apply.

How to stop. Reply STOP to any message and we stop immediately and permanently. Reply HELP for help, or email [email protected]. You can also opt out at any time by emailing us.

Your privacy. We never sell, rent, or share your mobile number with third parties, and we do not share it for marketing purposes. Carriers are not liable for delayed or undelivered messages. We honor the Missouri and Indiana no-call lists.

Questions: [email protected] · MyCivilHelp is a service of Tx Civil Help Inc, 5900 Balcones Dr #13025, Austin, TX 78731.

Sued by a debt collector in Missouri? Your court date is already set.

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