Advice Sought for Lawsuit Filed For Citibank Cc Debt

I had a credit card with Citibank which climbed to a balance of $27K. Over the past 3 years I defaulted on this and a few other cards due to a downturn in my business and loss of income.

The debt was purchased by a third party company and I received a collection letter from their attorney. in December of 2015. I responded with a letter of dispute and validation requested, and elected arbitration "stated in any underlying agreement".

Instead I received a personally served notice of a filing of lawsuit in my local county court filed by Absolute Resolution Corp. for the full amount plus legal fees. So, can anyone enlighten me as to what options I may have, other than fighting it in court (which I cannot afford for the most part) what the possible outcome would be?

Thanks