Bill on Bankruptcy: What's in the $83M ResCap Examiner's Report?
On May 31, 2024, the CFPB announced that it had filed suit against a Pennsylvania-based student loan servicer for engaging in allegedly unfair, deceptive and abusive acts or practices in violation of the CFPA, 12 U.S.C. §§...more
On April 4, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordered a federal district court to enter a nationwide preliminary injunction to enjoin the Department of Education (ED) from implementing the Biden...more
On November 16, the DOJ and DOE announced a successful first year of their new student loan bankruptcy discharge process during 2022. The discharge process extinguishes a borrower’s obligation to pay back either some or all...more
Here are curated AG and federal regulatory news stories highlighting key areas in which state and federal regulators’ decisions are having an impact across the US: •Google Reaches Settlement with AGs from 50 States, D.C.,...more
The U.S. Department of Education (DOE) approved $72 million in borrower defense to repayment discharges for students of online for-profit school Ashford University, which allegedly made substantial misrepresentations to...more
On March 16, the CFPB released a compliance bulletin discussing student loan servicers’ practice of collecting on private student loans discharged in bankruptcy. ...more
The CFPB issued a Compliance Bulletin and Policy Guidance warning loan servicers that continuing to seek repayment of certain student loans after bankruptcy discharge is an unfair, deceptive, or abusive act or practice in...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has released guidance to its attorneys regarding requests to discharge student loans in bankruptcy cases. The 16-page memorandum developed in coordination with the Department of Education...more
On January 4, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a district court’s decision to grant summary judgment for a credit reporting agency (defendant) in a suit alleging FCRA violations. ...more
New York AG Letitia James announced that as a result of a group discharge application filed with the U.S. Department of Education (ED) by a coalition of state AGs, over 4,400 New Yorkers will have their student loans...more
On April 12, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a blog post titled “Busting myths about bankruptcy and private student loans.” In the blog post, the CFPB argues that certain private education loans can...more
Section 523(a)(8) of the Bankruptcy Code excepts from discharge in bankruptcy certain student loans, “unless excepting such debt from discharge under this paragraph would impose an undue hardship.” By its terms, section...more
Acting to clarify the practical impact of a COVID relief provision enacted earlier this year, the IRS has announced in Notice 2022-1 (Notice) that lenders are not required to, and should not, issue Forms 1099-C when certain...more
A district court judge recently reversed and remanded a well-known bankruptcy decision discharging a significant student loan debt. In the Southern District of New York, Judge Philip Halpern, reviewing the bankruptcy court’s...more
In Hilal K. Homaidan v. Sallie Mae, Inc., Navient Solutions, LLC, Navient Credit Finance Corporation, Case No. 20-1981 (2d Cir. 2021), the Second Circuit affirmed the opinion of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern...more
In March 2021, the U.S. Department of Education noted that student loan borrowers owed $1.6 trillion federal and private loans. For many, loans are the only option to attend a U.S. university or college for undergraduate,...more
On July 15, 2021, in the Homaidan opinion, the Second Circuit joined the Fifth and Tenth Circuits in deciding that certain student loans are dischargeable in bankruptcy. These three opinions are very important for the student...more
The non-dischargeability of private student loans in bankruptcy proceedings has long been assumed to be almost absolute, but a July 15, 2021 decision (Homaidan v. Sallie Mae) by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second...more
As we reported, on June 21, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to revisit the rigid Brunner standard for determining “undue hardship” capable of discharging student debt. The same day, United States Bankruptcy Judge...more
When the Bankruptcy Code was first enacted in 1978, student loan debt could be discharged either after the passage of five years since the repayment obligation began, or if repayment would impose an undue hardship on the...more
On August 31, 2020, the Tenth Circuit affirmed the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado’s holding that certain student loans not guaranteed by a governmental unit may be discharged in bankruptcy....more
Education Credit Management Corporation (“ECMC”), the guarantor of the student loan debt ruled dischargeable last month by the Chief Judge of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, is...more
We recently reported on a Fifth Circuit decision that ruled some private, for-profit student loans are dischargeable in bankruptcy without a showing of undue hardship—something unusual and inconsistent with the widely-held...more
On January 7, 2020, Chief United States Bankruptcy Judge Cecilia G. Morris of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York issued a notable opinion in the case of Rosenberg v. N.Y. State Higher...more
Chief Bankruptcy Judge Cecelia Morris in the Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District recently reinterpreted Brunner’s “undue hardship” test and discharged over $220,000 in student loan debt. This opinion reflects a marked...more