Florida MCA Lawsuits
Twenty days to answer, no judgment on a confession signed in advance, and a usury statute with teeth. Florida is a different fight from New York, and the founding attorney here is admitted in both.
- 20 days to answer after serviceFla. R. Civ. P. 1.140
- No pre-suit confessions of judgmentFla. Stat. 55.05
- 30 days to remove to federal court28 U.S.C. 1446(b)
The funder's office is in Miami. So is the lawsuit.
Many merchant cash advance companies keep their offices in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, and their agreements increasingly name Florida courts. A merchant in Ohio or Texas can be sued in Fort Lauderdale on a contract signed by e-signature, and a New York judgment can be carried to Florida to reach a Florida bank account. Mikhail Usher is admitted to The Florida Bar and to the United States District Courts for the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida, so this office defends those cases directly rather than referring them out.
Twenty days. Not thirty.
Florida does not have New York's split between 20 and 30 days. Under Florida Rule of Civil Procedure 1.140(a)(1), a defendant has 20 days after service of process to serve an answer or a motion directed to the complaint. Miss it and the plaintiff can ask the clerk for a default under Rule 1.500 without a hearing. A merchant who has been told "you have 30 days" by someone thinking of New York is already behind.
A Florida court will not enter judgment on a confession signed in advance
Section 55.05, Florida Statutes declares void any power of attorney to confess judgment that was given before the action was brought. A funder cannot walk into a Florida clerk's office with your affidavit and walk out with a judgment. In Florida it has to sue you, serve you, and prove its case. That is why the 20 days matter so much: the default is the funder's substitute for the confession it cannot use.
A New York judgment that shows up in Florida
The more common Florida problem starts in New York. The funder enters a judgment there, by confession or by default, and then records it in a Florida county under the Florida Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act, sections 55.501 to 55.509. The clerk mails you a notice. From that point the statute gives a short window, measured in days, before the judgment can be enforced in Florida like a Florida judgment. Inside that window the judgment debtor can contest the jurisdiction of the court that entered it or the validity of the judgment, and can seek a stay while the judgment is under attack in the state that rendered it.
That last point is where a two-state firm earns its keep. The motion to vacate is made in New York, where the judgment was entered, under CPLR 5015 and the requirements of CPLR 3218. The stay is sought in Florida. Both have to be moving at the same time, and both have to be filed by lawyers admitted where they are filed. Here that is one office.
Purchase or loan: Florida asks the same question a different way
Florida's usury statutes have teeth on paper. Section 687.02 treats interest above 18% a year as usurious on obligations up to $500,000. Section 687.071 makes it a crime to willfully charge more than 25% a year and a felony to charge more than 45%. It also provides that a debt made in violation of it is not enforceable in the courts of the state. A typical factor rate, annualized over a four-month payback, is far beyond those numbers. Our factor rate calculator shows yours.
The obstacle is the same one as in New York: the funder says the transaction is a purchase of future receivables, not a loan. In Craton Entertainment, LLC v. Merchant Capital Group, LLC, 314 So. 3d 1284 (Fla. 3d DCA 2021), the court treated an agreement as a purchase where repayment was not absolutely required. So the Florida fight is on the same ground as the New York reclassification fight: whether reconciliation was real or illusory, whether a personal guaranty and a default clause made repayment certain in practice, and whether the funder bore any risk at all. Florida also asks whether the lender acted with corrupt intent, Dixon v. Sharp, 276 So. 2d 817 (Fla. 1973). That is a question about what the funder knew when it set the terms, and discovery into the funder's own underwriting file is how it gets answered.
Which state's law, and which state's court
Most agreements pick a governing law and a forum, and funders do not always follow their own clause. We see contracts governed by New York law sued on in Broward County, and Florida forum clauses ignored in favor of Kings County. Whether the clause is mandatory or permissive, whether the funder waived it by suing elsewhere, and whether a usury defense under one state's law survives a choice of the other's: these are often the first real disputes in the case. They can decide where the case goes forward, and whether it does.
Florida's Commercial Financing Disclosure Law
Sections 559.961 to 559.9615, Florida Statutes require providers of covered commercial financing, including purchases of accounts receivable, to give written disclosures of the total cost and the payment terms before closing. The statute is enforced by the Attorney General and does not by itself give a merchant a claim or void the contract. It still matters. A missing or wrong disclosure can be evidence of how the deal was sold, and it is one of the first things we check on any Florida file dated 2024 or later.
Federal court in Florida
A case between a Florida funder and an out-of-state merchant can qualify for federal court when more than $75,000 is in dispute. Removal has to happen within 30 days of service under 28 U.S.C. 1446(b), so that decision is made in the first week, not the third. Mr. Usher is admitted in the Southern District of Florida, which covers Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, and in the Middle District, which covers Tampa, Orlando and Jacksonville.
How a Brooklyn office handles a Florida case
The same office, the same phone number. Pleadings and motions are filed through the Florida Courts E-Filing Portal, many routine hearings in the circuit courts are held by video, and Mr. Usher appears in person when the hearing calls for it. If your business has been sued in both states at once, which happens when advances are stacked, one office runs both dockets under one plan.
The dates that govern
| Event | Governing rule | Timetable |
|---|---|---|
| Answer or motion after service | Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.140(a)(1) | 20 days after service of process. |
| Clerk's default | Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.500(a) | Available once the deadline passes with no paper served or filed. |
| Foreign judgment recorded in Florida | Fla. Stat. 55.505, 55.509 | A short statutory window runs from the clerk's mailed notice before enforcement. Any challenge to the judgment and any request for a stay must be filed inside it. Bring us the notice the day it arrives. |
| Removal to federal court | 28 U.S.C. 1446(b) | 30 days from service of the initial pleading. |
| Pre-suit confession of judgment | Fla. Stat. 55.05 | Void in Florida. The funder must sue. |
The first three days, and day 21
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Hour 0
Count the 20 days
The return of service fixes the date. It is written down first, along with the 30-day removal date if federal court is an option.
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Week one
Pick the court and the law
Forum clause, choice of law, jurisdiction over an out-of-state merchant, removal. These are decided before the answer is drafted, because some of them are waived by it.
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Before day 20
Answer or move, in both states if needed
A motion or an answer goes in on time in Florida. If the case began as a New York judgment, the motion to vacate in New York and the stay application in Florida are filed together.
Frequently asked
Yes, and within 20 days of service under Fla. R. Civ. P. 1.140. Whether Florida has jurisdiction over you is a defense, and it has to be raised at the start or it is waived. Ignoring the summons is not a safe way to preserve it. It usually produces a default judgment that the funder then carries to your home state.
Not immediately. The Florida Enforcement of Foreign Judgments Act makes the funder record the judgment and makes the clerk mail you notice, and enforcement waits for a short statutory period after that. Inside that period you can contest the New York court's jurisdiction or the judgment's validity in Florida and ask for a stay while a motion to vacate is pending in New York. We file both.
Not to get a Florida judgment. Fla. Stat. 55.05 voids a power to confess judgment given before suit. What funders do instead is confess the judgment in New York and then record it in Florida (lawyers call this domesticating it), which is why the New York motion to vacate matters even if you have never been to New York.
Only if it is a loan, and that is the contested question. Florida's criminal usury statute, section 687.071, reaches interest willfully charged above 25% a year and makes the debt unenforceable, but Florida courts have treated genuine purchases of receivables as outside it. The argument is built from your agreement: reconciliation that never happened, a guaranty that made repayment certain, fixed daily debits that ignored your receipts.
No. The office is at 1600 Sheepshead Bay Road in Brooklyn. Mikhail Usher is admitted to The Florida Bar and to the Southern and Middle Districts of Florida, files through the Florida e-filing portal, and appears in Florida courts by video or in person as the hearing requires.
Served in Florida? Tell us the date you were served.
The 20 days run from service, not from the day you opened the envelope. Send the summons, the complaint and the funding agreement and we will give you the deadline that day.