PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - New IRS Guidance on SECURE 2.0 Act Student Loan Employer Contributions
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: Recent Developments Affecting Student Loan Origination and Servicing
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - SECURE 2.0: Leveraging Opportunities Employees Want Most
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Gavels & Gowns - Responding to Borrower Defense to Repayment Applications
State AG Pulse | Action By MN AG Ellison Could Ripple Through Debt Servicing Industry
The Labor Law Insider: Recent U.S. Supreme Court, NLRB Decisions Highlight Labor Issues in Higher Education
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: The U.S. Supreme Court’s Decision Invalidating the Biden Administration’s Student Loan Forgiveness Plan and its Potential Legal Repercussions
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: Recent Federal and State Debt Collection Developments
Consumer Finance Monitor Podcast Episode: SCOTUS Hears Oral Argument in Cases Challenging Biden Administration Student Loan Forgiveness Plan: Observations and Predictions
Two Federal Courts Deal Blow to Biden Administration’s Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Program: A Close Look at the Decisions
Law School Toolbox Podcast Episode 361: Student Loan Repayment (w/Derek Brainard of AccessLex Institute)
Law School Toolbox Podcast Episode 336: How to Decide Which Law School Offer to Accept
A Deep Dive into the Debate Over Federal Student Loan Forgiveness
Law School Toolbox Podcast Episode 294: Money Talk (w/Carrie Friedberg)
COVID-19 Impact for Health & Welfare Plans (Troutman Sanders and Pepper Hamilton COVID-19 Issues for Employers Podcast Series)
VIDEO: Top 10 COVID-19 Tips for Employers: Cares Act Tax Provisions Edition
Bankruptcy Basics and Recent Developments
PODCAST: Williams Mullen's Benefits Companion - Student Loan Benefits
Dean: Law Schools Use Merit Scholarships To Boost Rankings
Does This New ABA Report Signal Change For Law Schools?
On June 30, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration did not have authority to forgive student loans under the Higher Education Relief Opportunities for Students Act of 2003 (HEROES Act). Despite this defeat,...more
On March 16, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) released a compliance bulletin entitled Unfair Billing and Collection Practices After Bankruptcy Discharges of Certain Student Loan Debts. The compliance bulletin...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently ruled that a plaintiff who alleged that Experian had violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by including a discharged student loan debt on his credit report had not...more
In conjunction with efforts to forgive federal student debt for certain borrowers, President Biden’s Justice Department recently announced new guidance for its attorneys to use when deciding whether to recommend that a...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
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
As of May 2021, approximately 45 million Americans owe more than $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. For the arithmetically challenged, that means the average borrower has $38,000 in student loan debt....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
Student loans are notoriously difficult to shed through the bankruptcy process. A person must show that it would impose an "undue hardship" on them to be required to repay the student loans, and the test for proving undue...more
On July 15, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that private student loans are not explicitly exempt from a debtor’s Chapter 7 bankruptcy discharge....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
On Monday, the United States Supreme Court denied Thelma McCoy’s petition for a writ of certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, passing up a golden opportunity to bring uniformity to the...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
2020 was a transformative year for the consumer financial services world. As we navigate an unprecedented volume of industry regulation, Troutman Pepper is uniquely positioned to help its clients find successful resolutions...more
Scott Markowitz, co-chair of the Bankruptcy and Corporate Restructuring Group, and Rich Schoenstein, host and Litigation partner, talk Bankruptcy Basics and Recent Developments on the latest episode of Law Brief. Scott and...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
Recently, the First Circuit held that a parent’s tuition payments on behalf of an adult child do not benefit the parent’s bankruptcy estate, and a Chapter 7 trustee may therefore claw the payments back as fraudulent...more
Anyone who hasn’t heard about the “student loan crisis” in the U.S. hasn’t been paying attention. U.S. student loan debt is estimated to range from between $1.2 and $1.6 trillion with more than seven million borrowers in...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
Individuals have several options when filing bankruptcy. Chapter 13 is often preferred for individuals with regular income who wish to keep their homes and other secured assets. In a Chapter 13 filing, the court will approve...more
Bankruptcy Code Section 523(a)(8) generally prohibits a discharge of student loan debt, unless the student debtor can prove that paying it back would be an undue hardship—often a high bar. That does not stop student debtors...more