FightBackStrong

FightBackStrong / Oklahoma

STATE LAW GUIDE

What Defenses Can I Use in Oklahoma?

The Oklahoma rule, with the statute it comes from.

You are not the only one. Hundreds of thousands of these get filed every year, mostly against ordinary people who hit a bad stretch. Life gets messy. None of it makes you a bad person. It just makes you human.

They file these by the thousand. You are doing this once. That gap is the only real advantage they have, and it closes the moment you know what they have to prove. Learn it, use it, fight back strong.

The short answer

Most defenses must be stated in your answer, or they are gone. Oklahoma requires affirmative defenses to be set forth in the responsive pleading, and the statute of limitations is named on that list. See 12 O.S. 2008(C).

So the first defense is filing at all, within twenty days. See 12 O.S. 2012(A).

The denials that are not really defenses, but do the most work

Before the named defenses, there is the structure of the answer itself. For each allegation you admit, deny, or state you lack knowledge, and a statement that you are without knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief has the effect of a denial. See 12 O.S. 2008(B).

That puts the plaintiff to its proof on the things you have not been shown: the balance, the chain of ownership, the terms. It is not a technicality, it is how the rules are built.

The limitation period

Five years on a written contract, three on an agreement not in writing. See 12 O.S. 95(A)(1) and 12 O.S. 95(A)(2). Affirmative, so you must plead it. See 12 O.S. 2008(C).

Separately, a debt collector must not bring or threaten to bring a legal action to collect a time-barred debt. See 12 C.F.R. 1006.26(b).

Defenses that can go by motion instead

Certain defenses may be raised by motion rather than in the responsive pleading: lack of subject matter jurisdiction, lack of jurisdiction over the person, improper venue, insufficiency of process and insufficiency of service of process, among others. See 12 O.S. 2012(B).

Do not file a reservation of time if you may have a service defect. Filing one waives the defenses in paragraphs 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 9 of that subsection, which is where those live. See 12 O.S. 2012(A).

The wrong-docket point, which is particular to Oklahoma

No action may be brought under the small claims procedure by any collection agency, collection agent, or assignee of a claim, except a health care provider assignee of insurance benefits. See 12 O.S. 1751(B).

A debt buyer is an assignee of the claim it bought. If that is the docket your case is on, the statute speaks to it directly.

The evidentiary ground, which is where most cases actually turn

None of these is a statute you cite. They are things a plaintiff either can or cannot produce:

Asking for the documents is how those become defenses rather than feelings.

If you want to raise a counterclaim

On the small claims docket, a defendant wanting to state a counterclaim or setoff files a verified answer, delivered to the plaintiff and filed with the clerk. See 12 O.S. 1758. The clerk collects $20.00 for that filing. See 28 O.S. 152.1(A)(2).

Note the contrast: the fee schedule lists no charge for filing an ordinary answer.

What signing your answer commits you to

By signing and filing it you certify that, after reasonable inquiry, it is not presented for an improper purpose and that your denials are warranted on the evidence or are reasonably based on a lack of information. See 12 O.S. 2011(B). You sign it yourself and give your address and telephone number. See 12 O.S. 2011(A).

Denying what you genuinely have not been shown is exactly what that rule contemplates.

Citations are read from the Oklahoma Legislature's official complete titles and recorded in the booklet's citation registry.