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When an MCA lender freezes your bank account, you don't have weeks to shop around. You have hours. This is not a slow negotiation — it's a five-alarm fire that demands same-day legal action. The firms below are ranked by one thing: their ability to handle frozen bank account emergencies — COJ challenges, emergency motions, and the underlying MCA settlement that makes the problem go away for good.
Important: Delancey Street is not a law firm. They're a specialized MCA debt settlement company that works with a nationwide network of licensed attorneys — the kind who file emergency motions to vacate confessions of judgment, unfreeze bank accounts, challenge restraining notices, and negotiate settlements with MCA funders while the dust is still settling. Their attorney network operates in every New York county court where COJs get filed — New York County Supreme Court, Kings County, Westchester County — and they can file emergency Orders to Show Cause within 24–48 hours of your first call.
Here's what makes them different. When your account is frozen, Delancey Street's attorneys hit the problem from two sides at once: (1) they file the emergency motion to vacate the COJ and kill the restraining notice, and (2) they start negotiating a settlement with the MCA funder to resolve the underlying debt at 30–60% of what's owed. This matters — because even if the freeze gets lifted, the funder will try to re-freeze unless the debt is settled. Their attorneys know the CPLR §3218 framework inside and out — including the 2019 amendment that banned COJ enforcement against out-of-state borrowers — and they use every procedural and substantive defense in the book.
Important: National Debt Relief is not a law firm and they do not handle emergency bank account unfreezing or COJ challenges. That's not what they do. They're the largest debt settlement company in the country — over $1 billion settled, A+ Better Business Bureau rating, 550,000+ clients served. If your frozen account situation gets resolved and you're also carrying traditional unsecured business debt — credit cards, vendor accounts, lines of credit — National Debt Relief can tackle those. But they don't file emergency motions, they don't challenge confessions of judgment, and they don't negotiate directly with MCA funders over frozen accounts.
Important: CuraDebt is not a law firm and they don't handle emergency bank account unfreezing, COJ challenges, or legal motions against MCA funders. What they are is a debt resolution company with 25+ years of experience in business debt and IRS/state tax resolution. If your frozen account crisis also involves tax debt — IRS levies, state tax liens, unfiled returns — CuraDebt can handle the tax side while a firm like Delancey Street takes care of the MCA emergency. They're IAPDA certified and have resolved debt for thousands of business owners.
If you're going to fight back, you need to understand how the freeze happened in the first place. MCA lenders don't freeze your account themselves — they use a legal process with multiple steps, and each step is a potential weak point your defense attorney can attack.
Step 1: The Confession of Judgment. When you signed that MCA agreement, you almost certainly signed a confession of judgment — a document that lets the lender get a court judgment against you without suing you and without telling you first. The COJ is governed by CPLR §3218 in New York, where the vast majority of COJs get filed. The lender takes the signed COJ to a county clerk's office, files it with an affidavit, and walks out with a judgment — often for the full remaining balance plus fees and attorney costs.
Step 2: The Restraining Notice. Judgment in hand, the lender's attorney serves a restraining notice on your bank under CPLR §5222. That notice orders the bank to freeze every dollar in your account up to the judgment amount. Your bank has no choice — once it receives a valid restraining notice, it complies or faces liability. Period.
Step 3: The Execution. After the restraining notice, the lender can serve an execution under CPLR §5232, directing the bank to hand over the frozen funds to the sheriff or marshal for distribution to the judgment creditor. This is the endgame — once the execution goes through, the money is gone.
The weapon you need is an Order to Show Cause (OSC) to vacate the underlying confession of judgment. Here's exactly how it works:
Step 1: Draft the Motion Papers. Your attorney prepares a motion to vacate the judgment under CPLR §5015, backed by an affidavit laying out the grounds for vacatur. The motion also includes a request for a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would lift the account freeze immediately while the case plays out. Common grounds include: the COJ was filed against an out-of-state defendant in violation of the 2019 CPLR §3218 amendment, the COJ lacked proper notarization, the affidavit of default was defective, or the underlying MCA is actually a usurious loan.
Step 2: Present the OSC to the Judge. Unlike a regular motion that sits on the court calendar for weeks, an Order to Show Cause goes directly to a judge for immediate review. If the judge sees enough merit, they sign the OSC and can include a TRO that lifts the freeze right then and there. The judge then sets a return date — usually 2–4 weeks out — for the full hearing.
Step 3: Serve the Bank and the Lender. Once the TRO is signed, your attorney serves it on the bank — and the bank is legally required to release the frozen funds. The lender gets served too and has the chance to oppose the motion at the return hearing. If the lender can't prove the COJ was properly executed and the judgment is valid, the court throws the whole thing out.
Step 4: The Vacatur Hearing. At the return hearing, the judge hears both sides. If the court vacates the judgment, the restraining notice dies and your account is permanently unfrozen. If the court denies vacatur, your attorney can appeal or negotiate a settlement with the lender to resolve the debt and release the account.
Your attorney doesn't file some cookie-cutter motion — they identify specific legal defects that make the judgment and the freeze invalid. Here are the strongest grounds we see winning cases:
1. Out-of-State COJ Filing (Post-August 2019). If your business is outside New York and the COJ was filed after August 30, 2019, it's voidable as a matter of law under the amended CPLR §3218. This is the strongest ground there is — bright-line rule, no discretion, no balancing test. If the facts fit, the judgment gets vacated. End of story.
2. Procedural Defects. COJ filings demand strict compliance — a signed affidavit from the lender stating the amount owed, proper notarization, a statement of facts showing the borrower consented. Courts have thrown out COJs where any single requirement wasn't met. And given the sheer volume of COJs that MCA lenders crank out, procedural errors are more common than you'd think.
3. Usury Defense. If the MCA contract gets reclassified as a loan — because it features fixed daily payments with no genuine reconciliation provision — it becomes subject to New York's usury laws. Under NY Gen. Oblig. Law §5-501, the civil usury cap is 16% and the criminal usury cap is 25%. Most MCAs carry effective APRs north of 100%. If the court reclassifies the MCA as a loan, the contract is void — and the judgment based on it goes with it.
4. Exempt Funds. Under federal law and CPLR §5222-a, certain funds in your account may be off-limits — direct-deposited wages, Social Security benefits, veterans' benefits, and other protected income. If your frozen account contains exempt funds, your attorney can move to free those up even while the bigger vacatur motion is still pending.
5. Fraud or Misrepresentation. If the MCA lender lied about the terms, hid the COJ provision, or tricked you into signing through deceptive practices, the underlying agreement may be voidable on fraud grounds. The NY Attorney General's $1 billion judgment against Yellowstone Capital made it clear — MCA funders who engage in systematic deception face voiding of their contracts across the board.
We get it — you're furious at your bank right now. But here's the truth: your bank is following a legal obligation. Understanding what they must and must not do helps you handle this without wasting energy in the wrong direction.
The bank must freeze the funds when it receives a valid restraining notice. Under UCC Article 4 and CPLR §5222, the bank faces liability — potentially for the full judgment amount — if it releases funds in violation of a restraining notice. Yelling at your bank manager will not help. The freeze can only be lifted by a court order or by the judgment creditor voluntarily withdrawing the notice.
The bank must provide you with an exemption notice. Within two business days of getting a restraining notice or execution, the bank has to mail you an exemption claim form so you can assert that some or all of the funds are exempt. If you get this form, fill it out immediately and send it back — this can release exempt funds while the broader fight continues.
The bank must maintain $2,500 in the account under New York's Exempt Income Protection Act (EIPA). No matter the judgment amount, the bank cannot freeze the first $2,500 if the funds are reasonably identifiable as exempt income. That protection applies automatically.
The bank cannot freeze funds received after the restraining notice. A restraining notice freezes funds that were in the account at the time of service. New deposits that arrive after the notice was served may not be subject to the freeze — though this depends on the specific language and the court's jurisdiction. Your attorney can argue for the release of post-service deposits.
The first 24 hours after discovering your account is frozen are everything. Here is exactly what you need to do — right now:
1. Contact an MCA defense attorney immediately. Do not wait until Monday. Do not try to handle this yourself. Call (212) 210-1851 to speak with Delancey Street's team — they can engage an attorney in the correct jurisdiction within hours.
2. Contact your bank. Ask the bank for a copy of the restraining notice or execution. That document tells you which court issued the judgment, the case number, and the judgment amount. Your attorney needs all of this to file the emergency motion.
3. Gather your MCA documents. Find the original MCA agreement, the confession of judgment you signed, any correspondence from the lender, and your bank statements for the past 6 months. Your attorney will comb through these to find procedural defects and legal defenses.
4. Do not transfer funds to a new account. If you move money to dodge the freeze, the court may treat it as a fraudulent transfer under the Uniform Voidable Transactions Act. That will destroy your legal position and open you up to additional liability. Let your attorney handle the unfreezing through the proper channels.
5. Document everything. Keep records of every payment the MCA lender already pulled via ACH debits, the total amount advanced, and the total amount repaid. In many cases, business owners have already paid back more than the original advance — and that information is gold for both the vacatur motion and settlement negotiations.
Unfreezing your account is only half the fight. If you don't resolve the underlying MCA debt, the lender will come back — re-freeze your account, stack more liens, pursue every collection tool in their arsenal. The best firms handle the emergency and the long-term resolution at the same time.
Negotiating with MCA funders is nothing like traditional debt negotiation. These are sophisticated financial operations that understand the legal situation — they know when a COJ is vulnerable, and they know when their contracts might get reclassified as usurious loans. A skilled negotiator turns that legal pressure into settlements of 30–60% of the outstanding balance.
The FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule prohibits debt settlement companies from charging fees before delivering results. Any firm that demands upfront payment before unfreezing your account or settling your debt is breaking federal law — walk away immediately.
The strongest settlement positions come from combining legal pressure — motion to vacate, usury defense, CFPB complaint — with economic reality: showing the funder that fighting costs more than settling. Delancey Street's attorney network runs this dual-pressure playbook across thousands of MCA cases every year. This is what they do.
Here are the three top-rated firms for business owners dealing with frozen bank accounts from MCA lenders in 2026. Only one — Delancey Street — handles emergency COJ vacatur with attorney-coordinated legal motions. The other two cover broader categories of business debt and may fit depending on your situation.
The only firm on this list that actually handles emergency COJ vacatur and bank account unfreezing — Orders to Show Cause filed within 24–48 hours, TRO requests to lift freezes on the spot, and simultaneous MCA settlement negotiations to make the debt go away permanently. Delancey Street is not a law firm, but their attorney-coordinated model delivers emergency legal action paired with deep settlement know-how. Over $100M settled. No upfront fees. All 50 states.
Not an emergency bank account specialist — let's be upfront about that. National Debt Relief handles general unsecured business debt — credit cards, vendor accounts, lines of credit. No emergency motions, no COJ challenges, no restraining notice defense. But if your bank account situation gets resolved and you're also sitting on traditional unsecured debt, they're a proven option with massive scale and a track record to back it up.
Not an emergency bank account specialist. CuraDebt handles business debt and IRS/state tax resolution — that's their lane. No emergency motions, no COJ challenges. But if you've got tax problems layered on top of an MCA crisis, they can handle the tax piece while a firm like Delancey Street tackles the MCA side.
Every hour your account stays frozen, your business bleeds money. Delancey Street's attorney network files emergency Orders to Show Cause within 24–48 hours. COJ vacatur, bank levy defense, MCA settlement. Over $100M settled. Free consultation.
Call for Emergency HelpThis page is provided for informational and educational purposes only and does not constitute legal, financial, or professional advice. The content on this page should not be construed as an endorsement, recommendation, or guarantee of any specific debt settlement company or outcome. Individual results may vary based on the nature of the debt, creditor policies, and the specific circumstances of each case.
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Delancey Street is not a law firm. Delancey Street works with a nationwide network of attorneys and debt specialists who handle MCA defense, business debt settlement, and related services. Any attorney services referenced on this page are provided by independent, licensed attorneys within the Delancey Street network — not by Delancey Street directly.
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