JK- we have had this conversation before. If the debtor is being sued, the burden is upon the plaintiff to prove that a debt is owed, and the amount of that debt. The plaintiff cannot simply go into court and say "Your honor, the debtor owes me money because Joe's bank told me they do."
There is a standard here of what can and cannot constitute a valid record kept in business. I, as a debt collector, cannot swear to the accuracy and completeness of another entity's business records. That is, the collector must be able to produce records IN COURT to show that the balance being claimed is the correct one, and that the records are kept in the ordinary course of business. This can be hard to do when a debt has changed hands several times between the original creditor and the debt collector who is filing suit 4 years later.
While there is an exception for the hearsay rule that applies to computerized records kept in the oridinary course of business, the party producing those records has a burden to prove that the records are in fact a part of routine business operations, and that they are complete and accurate.
If I am a a collector named Dave, who bought a debt from collector Bill, who bought the debt from collector Sue, who bought the account from the Security Trust Bank for a credit card issued to Mike, how can I testify to the accuracy of each entity's records? This is the weak link in the case of most Junk Debt Buyers (JDB's).
All the records of the debt collector can attest to in the above example is that Bill sold me a debt that claimed Mike owed $500 to the Security Trust Bank. No one except the Security Trust Bank can attest to the creation of the debt, and no one except the Security Trust bank can testify that the records were kept in the ordinary course of business, nor can anyone except an employee of the Security Trust Bank explain the records keeping process of the bank without violating the hearsay rule.
The level of proof required to win a lawsuit is totally different from the level of proof required to validate a debt as per the FDCPA. The FDCPA cannot be used as a defense in court, and I would not even mention it OR validation. Instead, I would use the SOL while simultaneously attacking the evidence and the chain of custody of the records.

