Laurina Kim Bukovics enrolled as a freshman at the University of Wisconsin in 1985 and graduated five years later. She took out about $20,000 in student loans to finance her studies. Over the years, she paid back $29,000–almost 140 percent of the amount borrowed. Nevertheless, 25 years after she graduated, Bukovics owed $80,000 on her …
Vicky Jo Metz borrowed $16,613 back in the 1990s to attend a community college, but she never got a degree. Over the years, she filed for bankruptcy three times, but she continued making payments on her student loans under court-approved repayment plans. In fact, she paid almost 90 percent of what she originally borrowed. Nevertheless, …
Barbara Erkson, an unmarried 64-year-old woman, filed an adversary proceeding in a Maine bankruptcy court in an attempt to discharge $107,000 in student loans in bankruptcy. The U.S. Department of Education and Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) vigorously objected, but Judge Peter Carey rejected their heartless arguments and granted Ms. Erkson a full discharge. This …
In a previous essay, I wrote about Alan and Catherine Murray, a married couple in their late forties who defeated Educational Credit Management Corporation in a Kansas bankruptcy court. ECMC appealed, and the Murrays prevailed again–a victory that has important implications for middle-income student-loan debtors. The Murrays took out student loans in the 1990s to …
Back at the end of 2016 a Kansas bankruptcy judge ruled on this bankruptcy case that included federal student loan debt Educational Credit Management Corporation was responsible for. This truth is starkly illustrated in the case of Murray v. Educational Credit Management Corporation, which was decided in December 2016 by a Kansas bankruptcy judge. At …
The National Consumer Bankruptcy Rights Center (NCBRC) and National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) have decided to support the bankruptcy discharge in ECMC v. Murray with an outside briefing supporting the effort. The Murray case is very interesting in that the bankruptcy court agreed a substantial part of their student loan debt should be …
In recent blogs, I discussed two cases in which Educational Credit Management Corporation, the Department of Education’s most ruthless student-loan debt collector, was sanctioned by a court for misbehavior. In the Bruner-Halteman case, a Texas bankruptcy judge assessed punitive damages against ECMC for garnishing the wages of a bankrupt Starbucks employee in violation of the …
Do you remember political consultant James Carville’s famous line during the 1992 presidential campaign? “It’s the economy, stupid,” Carville supposedly observed. That eloquently simple remark became Bill Clinton’s distilled campaign message and helped propel him into the presidency. Something similar might be said about the student-loan crisis. “It’s the interest, stupid.” In fact, for many …
Mark Tetzlaff is a law school student who might not have achieved his dream of being a licensed attorney but the guy surely deserves some props for championing the cause through the courts of being impossibly in debt with student loans and seeking a legal remedy. My last story on Tetzlaff, here, talked about how …
On July 29, 2015 the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC) and National Association of Bankruptcy Attorneys (NACBA) jointly filed a court document arguing a position in support of discharging student loans through the bankruptcy laws. Much thanks to the readers and tipster who slipped me the document. The matter of dealing with overwhelming student loan …