According to the affidavit, the person attesting to the debt -

"is an employee of Midland Credit Manangement, servicer of this account on behalf of MRC Receivables Corp. (CRG)"

The affidavit also states -

"I have personal knowledge of all relevant financial information concering Midland Credit Management's account number XXXXXXX which includes the following information: the defendant did fail to make payments on the account and the demand has been made for defendant to make payment of the balance owing on the account described above more than 30 days prior to making this affidavit; that the attourneys representing plaintiff MRC Receiveables - were retained on behalf of me or persons reporting to me for purpose of collecting debt due - the sum of $1551.89

Now, Ohio's SOL laws on credit card debt are confusing and most sites claim 6yrs, however Whychat's site - whychat.5u.com - claims its only 4 yrs in Ohio due to certain wording in the Ohio Revised Code...so its not even a clearcut case of being past the SOL.

So my questions are -

1) Do you not think its wise for me to handle this myself and respond to the summons without a lawyer? I'd prefer not to have to pay a retainer fee and lawyer fees as it could quickly reach higher than the $1500 she is being sued for.

2) Say eventually it goes to court and my wife loses and has a judgement against her - the worst they can do is try to garnish her wages, freeze bank accounts, or claim assets right? Only reason I ask is before we got married in 2002 I was aware of her credit problems and NOTHING has been put into her name since then. She does not have a bank account, her name is not on the mortgage, she has no assets to her name whatsoever other than a 403(b) savings account. The only other thing in her name are a couple of credit cards she uses. Also, she is pregnant and will be quiting her job soon so she will have no wages to garnish. Given these circumstances, even if they won in court they cant really collect on the debt if she has no assets correct? And they cannot come after me, correct? I checked and Ohio is not a Community Property state and we have no joint accounts either except a few credit cards...but NO joint bank accounts or assets. Those are ONLY in my name.