STUDENT LOAN DISCHARGE

By Michaela M. White, Professor of Law, Creighton Law School

History

The Bankruptcy Code permits debtors to discharge prepetition debts and at one time, this discharge included student loans. Today, student loans are dischargeable in bankruptcy only in rare (and highly unfortunate) circumstances.

Congress made student loans nondischargeable in 1976, save for a narrow set of exceptions, in the belief that student-loan debtors systematically abused the bankruptcy system by filing bankruptcy shortly after graduation and seeking a discharge of student loans without a good faith attempt at repayment. At one time section 523 . . .

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New Trustee Named

The Academy

September 3, 2023

Tracy Updike of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, has been named as a Chapter 13 Standing Trustee for the Northern District of Indiana. Updike will be filling the trusteeship vacated by Debra Miller when she accepted a trusteeship in the Eastern District of Tennessee.

Supreme Court on Statute of Limitations Under Fair Debt Collection Practices Act

December 15, 2019

By William Houston Brown, Editor/Adviser Academy for Consumer Bankruptcy Education Construing the statute of limitations for actions against debt collectors under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCA), the Supreme Court held on December 10, 2019, that “absent the application of an equitable doctrine, the statute of limitations in § 1692k(d) begins to run on the date on which the...

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From the Supreme Court

The Academy

June 18, 2023

Lac Du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians et al. v. Coughlin Supreme Court rules in favor of borrower of tribal loan –Chapter 13 stay applies. Justices reject tribal immunity from bankruptcy stay.

Division of Marital Property During a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy

Michael B. Joseph

November 5, 2023

“The focus of this article is to review some of the issues faced in cases with pending state court marital property division proceedings.”

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New Federal Guidance on Discharging Student Loans in Bankruptcy Is a Game Changer

Robert B. Branson, Tammy Branson

March 26, 2023

The Justice Department, in partnership with the Department of Education, recently announced new guidelines that loosen the strict application of the “undue hardship” exceptionwhen defending a student loan dischargeability action. This new guidance is a game changer. In the past the Department of Justice narrowly applied the undue hardship exception when defending discharge of student loans to the extent that...

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From the Editor – Claims

October 20, 2019

By The Honorable William Houston Brown (Retired) Objection sustained to one-year late proof of claim. The mortgage creditor did not object to confirmation nor file a proof of claim until one year after the bar date in the Chapter 13 case. The trustee objected to the claim, which asserted a higher arrearage than provided for in the confirmed plan. Section...

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No Room for Error? Determining Whether Your “Secured” Creditor Has a Fatally Deficient UCC-1

March 22, 2020

By Lawrence R. Ahern III, Brown & Ahern (Nashville, TN) Click here for Part I Click here for Part II Part III - Description of Collateral Introduction The . . . It looks like you are not signed in or registered! This content is only available to members. Join Now Or Sign In Below: Username or Email Password Remember me...

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List It or Lose It: When Actual Knowledge Isn’t Enough

June 20, 2021

By Cathy Moran, Esq., (Redwood City, CA) To actually effect abandonment of unadministered assets in a bankruptcy case, the asset in question must appear on Schedule A/B. That’s the hard teaching of Stevens v. Whitmore from the 9th Circuit BAP. A passing reference to an asset in the SOFA isn’t sufficient. Neither was the fact the trustee explicitly knew about...

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Critical Case Comment – Repeat: No Fee Splitting

Henry E. Hildebrand, III

October 23, 2022

A referral fee by retained special counsel paid to debtor’s attorney violates the prohibition in § 504 in that it constitutes an unauthorized splitting of attorney’s fees. (Williamson) In re Davis, 638 B.R. 198 (Bankr. M.D. Fla. March 31, 2022) Case Summary Four years after Lisa Davis filed her Chapter 13 petition, she was involved in an auto accident resulting...

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The Effect of “Success” (or the Lack of It) on Attorneys’ Fees – Part 1: Judicial and Legislative Background

Lawrence R. Ahern, III

September 18, 2022

Introduction In In re Village Apothecary, Inc.,1 the Sixth Circuit last month reduced an attorney's fees by half, where the professional's services were not "successful." The results obtained (or, actually, the lack of results) justified cutting the fees of attorneys for a Chapter 7 trustee by 50%. Why It Matters to Chapter 13 People This analysis of the implications of...

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