5 Priorities for Owners
Garland MCA Defense Attorneys and Business Debt

A Garland owner facing an MCA dispute needs two professionals for two assignments. The settlement negotiator addresses the balance. Legal counsel answers the court. Confusing those roles is the costliest mistake in the file.

Texas now supplies part of the legal vocabulary. House Bill 700, effective September 1, 2025, created Finance Code Chapter 398 for covered commercial sales based financing, with disclosure duties for specific offers under one million dollars and rules that counsel must measure against the actual transaction. The enrolled text of HB 700 rewards careful reading and punishes reliance on summaries. What follows puts the papers, the statute, the money, and the closing in their proper order.

Place the Litigation Papers Before Counsel

Deliver the complete demand or court papers to an attorney before discussing any payment amount, including the proof of service, attachments, and every message about extensions. Counsel needs the documents to determine who must respond, in which forum, and by what date. A guaranty may drag the owner into a case the company thought it faced alone. The engagement letter should name the represented parties and the work covered, because a settlement company reviewing an account does not thereby appear in court, and deadlines continue while negotiations proceed. Private talks create no automatic stay of the kind a bankruptcy filing produces, a distinction the federal guidance on Chapter 11 describes with its exceptions intact. Keep the envelope the papers arrived in. The postmark has decided cases.

Measure the Agreement Against Chapter 398

Texas law now requires specified disclosures of cost, payment terms, security, and broker compensation for covered offers, and it declares a covered contract containing a confession of judgment or similar provision void and unenforceable. Those propositions are extremely consequential for contract review, and they justify no declaration that every MCA in the state fails. Coverage turns on the transaction, its date, and statutory exemptions that counsel must examine one by one. Rules adopted in 2026 address automatic debits from deposit accounts and the perfected first priority interest in receivables that must support them, which is a narrower subject than a ban on all automatic withdrawals. The confession of judgment rule (which defenders of high volume funding will describe as a technicality) removes a procedural weapon that once decided cases before owners hired lawyers. Ask counsel to separate the disclosure question from the payment question. A compliance defect may supply a defense. It does not supply a budget.

Fund the Proposal From Operating Reality

Credible proposals begin with cash the business can spare after necessary expenses. Assemble receipts, bank statements, payment histories, and a forecast that carries every obligation, not only the loudest one.

A funder accepts numbers. It does not accept intentions.

That distinction governs the negotiation from the first call. Delancey Street offers a free confidential initial review of MCA debt concerns for eligible accounts. The company provides debt settlement services and coordinates legal matters with independently licensed counsel. It is not a law firm. Confirm Texas service availability and the scope of the proposed engagement. An offer should state what happens to collection activity, guarantors, and any pending proceeding while the proposal sits on the desk. A receipt for one payment answers none of those questions.

Assign Every Administrative Duty

Name the person who receives notices, the person who forwards them to counsel, and the person authorized to approve an offer. Write those assignments down. I drafted my first response to an MCA complaint on a Friday afternoon in August, and the lesson of that day was administrative: the client had the right arguments in an inbox nobody monitored. Provide notices the day they arrive. A representative cannot answer a document that sits unopened in the office. Keep one current contact list for all professionals on the matter.

Define Completion Before Paying

Require closing documents that identify the obligation resolved, the parties released, and the fate of any guaranty or asserted lien. If a case is pending, counsel should ensure its dismissal or discontinuance is addressed in the same papers. The IRS guidance on canceled debt explains that forgiven balances may create taxable income, with exceptions and exclusions that belong in a tax consultation. Most clerks in busy Texas courts process agreed dispositions without ceremony, which is convenient until an unclear order resurfaces years later as an open judgment. Match payment proof to the executed agreement before funds move. It is extremely tempting to trust an oral assurance when daily withdrawals have worn the owner down. The assurance worth having is the one a successor at the funding company can read.

A Garland business survives an MCA dispute the way it survives a slow season: by knowing exactly what is owed, to whom, and from which receipts it will be paid. The statute supplies tools, the records supply proof, and rest comes only from the closing papers. Everything else is conversation.