Once they file a lawsuit, they notify you by posting it in the newspaper. You can choose to defend yourself or not. They don't need to find you first. After winning, creditors will garnish her wages. They don't need an asset to collect right now, they will collect on her earning potential for the next decade or two.

The debt collector bought the debt for pennies on the dollar. You can renegotiate at this point because your credit has and will be ass raped til you resolve it.

There is no statue of limitations. Once this debt collector decides they don't want to pursue it any longer, they sell it to the the next collector to get their money back. The new owner dings your credit and the process starts all over again. Oh yeah, they add their own fees on top of everything else. Once it reaches a certain limit, a collector then takes it to court with the goal of garnishing your wages.

There is a time limit on how long something will reflect negatively on your credit but the creditors know this and play the game too.

You're not the first person to dodge them. They've spent decades honing their craft and lobbing politicians to tilt the game in their favor. Bankruptcy won't let you forgive this debt.

Source: mother in law was a debt collector for a decade.