MCA Defense in San Diego
Top MCA Defense Firms Serving San Diego - 2026
In order to collect, out-of-state plaintiffs must domesticate their judgments in California under California Sister State Money Judgments Act, CCP 1710.10-1710.65. The good news is that you may be able to challenge even the validity of that judgment within thirty days of service of notice of entry. If you miss that deadline it can be hard to make the argument, and doing it properly and in time is your best bet. Jurisdiction, service, and fraud are all grounds for attack, and while it is harder and costlier to argue after a levy, after a writ of execution, after service of discovery, you may still have a case.
California has no CPLR 5222 or restraining notice like New York. San Diego County’s Sheriff’s Department levies on the writ of execution, not on some kind of warning or threat. You can file a claim of exemption in California but you have to do so within deadlines that run from service of the notice of levy. A New York lawyer is not automatically the right choice in California; many judgment debtors facing MCA collections hire one in each state.
If there is a confession of judgment you can often argue that New York ended them against non-New Yorkers in 2019. This can be the fastest way to undo the whole thing. Starting in 2023 California no longer enforces them either, except older ones.
MCAs are usually written as agreements to buy future receivables, not to make loans. California usury limits, written into the California Constitution at Article XV, are much, much lower than New York’s. Get a court to recharacterize it as a loan and that gap gets huge. If the lender has a license under the California Financing Law it does not have to follow the usury limit, so the first step is to ask.
Rather than focusing on the document’s label, the court will try to figure out what the substance of the deal actually is. Are the payments tied to revenue? Is repayment due if nothing comes in at all? Does it look like risk went to the funder, not the recipient? Your best argument is that the reconciliation agreement was illusory. It gets much weaker if the funder honors the agreement. Be sure that your lawyer gives you an honest estimate of how hard it will be to win, and avoid throwing good money after bad.
The law about disclosing what you pay changed in December of 2022. Since then the funder has to tell you the funding amount and the annualized rate before you sign. The other side breaking one of the rules does not cancel the advance. It does increase your leverage if it gets caught. This is mostly about leverage, not defense. Your lawyer can help you use that leverage.
Many first moves end up breaking what is left of the deal. First, do not assume that closing the account or stopping the daily debit gets rid of the liability. If the contract had a personal guarantee, it might very well do the opposite, by accelerating the balance and enforcing the guarantee. Leave the account open and the payment running until you are sure about what your options are. If you want to revoke your ACH authorization and still have a case, you need to give notice, usually in writing. You also need to coordinate with both the bank branch and the back office. You also have to have a legal plan ready for the funder’s next move. The order of these steps matters, and the details matter too.
There is rarely any way to fix the math when you have stacked your advances. Settlement and restructuring become the realistic paths. And you need to have a defense that passes a professional’s smell test to get the other side to bring its numbers down. Your funder is a professional negotiator, and the first offer is a starting bid. UCC-1 liens go to the Secretary of State’s office to block other lending, but unless they get terminated they stay on there and may block an SBA loan later on, or a loan for equipment.
If you file bankruptcy from San Diego, you go into the Southern District of California. Filing creates an automatic stay that stops all collection moves at once, including debits, levies, seizures, and lawsuits. $3,424,000 is the limit, as of January 2026, that gets you into the faster, cheaper Chapter 11 called Subchapter V, not the $7.5 million number that many places posted. A business bankruptcy does not wipe out the guarantor’s obligation to pay.
Before you hire someone it is worth checking them out. In California you can start at the State Bar website. Look up the name in its Attorney Search to see the history of the license and any public discipline. In San Diego the County Bar also has a referral service. The law says that the fee agreement has to be in writing if the cost is likely over $1,000, though corporations get a pass. You can ask for one anyway. If the lawyer sues for fees, you get 30 days from notice of the right to arbitration to ask for it. Miss it, and the court will hear the claim, not the arbitrator.
Always, always, keep the Notice of Entry of Judgment.