Your former employee sues you, but your employee-plaintiff filed for bankruptcy. You diligently research the bankruptcy filings and discover the employee did not disclose the lawsuit against you in those filings, which are...more
The 10th Circuit has joined several circuit courts holding that private student loans are dischargeable in bankruptcy. In McDaniel v. Navient Solutions, a case of first impression in the 10th Circuit, the court concluded that...more
How long do you have to reinstate an employee following military leave? In Harwood v. American Airlines, the Fourth Circuit found that a delay of six or eight weeks was too long. The Uniformed Services Employment and...more
Several states have recently ramped up their regulation of the student lending industry by passing laws requiring student loan servicers to be licensed in the state in order to operate there. Many of these state licensing...more
So, you are one of the fortunate ones who received a payment from the government for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) – how do you get that loan amount forgiven? The quick answer is that you need to use at least 75% of...more
As we’ve been tracking for over a year now, courts across the country have addressed the significant question of whether the federal laws governing federally owned or guaranteed student loans preempt state laws placing...more
4/14/2020
/ Debt Collection ,
Department of Education ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Federal Student Loans ,
Higher Education Act ,
Loan Servicer ,
Misrepresentation ,
Preemption ,
Private Student Loans ,
Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF program) ,
State Regulators ,
Student Loan Servicers Regulation ,
Student Loans
Like the country and economy at large, the COVID-19 pandemic is significantly impacting secondary education and the student lending industry. In response to the pandemic, colleges across the country closed their campuses,...more
When the Department of Labor (DOL) withdraws one of its previous opinion letters and issues a new interpretation, should a court to change its ruling? No — not according to a federal judge in Arkansas....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
Ever wonder what happened with the minimum wage fight that has been going on between Alabama and Birmingham? Well, here is the latest — the full panel on the Eleventh Circuit has now spoken: the district court rightly...more
If an employee misses work to attend church on Sunday morning and the company subsequently fires her, is that religious discrimination? A jury in Texas recently said yes and awarded the plaintiff close to $350,000. The...more
The Fifth Circuit’s recent decision in Crocker v. Navient Solutions is a stark reminder to for-profit student lenders and servicers that bankruptcy caselaw continues to evolve relating to discharge. In Crocker, the Fifth...more
11/5/2019
/ Chapter 7 ,
Class Action ,
Consumer Bankruptcy ,
Consumer Financial Products ,
Consumer Lenders ,
Dischargeable Debts ,
Internal Revenue Code (IRC) ,
Loan Servicer ,
Payment Terms ,
Private Student Loans ,
Student Loans ,
Students
With the increase in communication and notices being sent to customers in multiple industries, one area companies in the 21st century need to be well aware of relates to communication disabilities under the Americans with...more
If your employee sues you for discrimination, they don’t get to look at how the decision-makers treated everyone else, do they? Well, in Cruz vs. US Homeland Security, the D.C. Court of Appeals says yes they do. Although the...more
Federal law has long excepted student loans from discharge in bankruptcy in all but the rarest instances, recognizing the problems (and costs) associated with allowing borrowers to wipe out defaulted debts through a...more
Creditors and credit furnishers often find properly reporting a payment status to Credit Reporting Agencies (CRAs) during, and after, bankruptcy a challenge. The recent Report of the American Bankruptcy Institute on Consumer...more
You finally settled that tough discrimination or harassment claim. Now you just need to ink the settlement agreement, and obviously it will include a standard non-disclosure clause to prevent your claimant from ever talking...more
In courts across the country, servicers are facing off against states and borrowers over the extent to which federal laws preempt state regulation of federal student loan servicers. Numerous states have stepped up their...more
Minimum wage laws invite controversy, and Alabama’s latest tug-of-war between the state and its largest city is going to get another wider review. You may recall that back in 2015, Birmingham, Alabama, passed a local minimum...more
2/12/2019
/ Appeals ,
Dismissals ,
Fourteenth Amendment ,
Governor Bentley ,
Local Ordinance ,
Minimum Wage ,
Preemption ,
Race Discrimination ,
Reversal ,
State and Local Government ,
State Labor Laws ,
Vacated ,
Wage and Hour
]With the start of the new year, California has expanded protections for military servicemembers with student loans.
Student loans incurred by a protected servicember before entry into service have an interest rate cap of...more
What if your employee plaintiff sues you and then demands to take the deposition of your company CEO or some other high-level corporate executive who has no personal knowledge about the facts of the case? No one would be...more
10/19/2018
/ Apex Doctrine ,
Appeals ,
CEOs ,
Corporate Executives ,
Depositions ,
Discovery ,
Motion to Compel ,
Personal Knowledge ,
Reversal ,
Witness Statements ,
Workplace Injury
Arbitration provisions in employment contracts are not unusual. So when GrubHub, a fast-food delivery service, was sued by drivers for violating wage laws it filed a motion to enforce the arbitration clause in its service...more
10/3/2018
/ Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Class Action Arbitration Waivers ,
Drivers ,
Employment Contract ,
Employment Litigation ,
Enforcement ,
Federal Arbitration Act ,
Independent Contractors ,
Mandatory Arbitration Clauses ,
Misclassification ,
Service Contracts ,
Transportation Industry ,
Wage and Hour
The Trump administration is looking to stiffen the criteria for borrowers to obtain forgiveness of their student loans based on fraud. If enacted, this higher criteria would mark a significant shift for students who seek...more
Could the Department of Labor (DOL) and Department of Education (DOE) possibly merge in the near future? President Trump thinks so and recently announced his desire to combine the two departments into a single federal agency...more
7/10/2018
/ Agency Consolidation ,
Class Action ,
Colleges ,
Department of Education ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Educational Institutions ,
Employees ,
Legislative Agendas ,
Students ,
Trump Administration ,
Universities
Does your arbitration agreement allow you to recover attorneys’ fees if the employee rebels against arbitration and you have to compel it? Maybe it should. In Aralar v. Scott McRea Automotive Group, a court in Florida...more