Oak Park Real Estate & Estate Planning Blog

If you are a resident of the Chicago area who has been harassed by debt collector about an old debt, it is important to pay attention to a recent case that will soon go before the U.S. Supreme Court. According to a recent article in The Wall Street Journal , “the U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether a debt-collection agency can be punished for trying to collect an old credit-card debt from a woman who filed for bankruptcy .” In short, if you file for bankruptcy protection, can a debt collector continue trying to collect on an old debt? If that debt collection is in fact prohibited under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), can the debt collector be punished? Supreme Court Grants Writ of Certiorari In order for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear a case, a petitioner first must file a petition for a writ of certiorari. According to a definition from the Cornell Legal Information Institute (LII), a writ of certiorari is a type of writ “by which an appellate...

For elderly Chicago residents or those who are disabled, it can be difficult to live on what is often a fixed monthly income. As costs to live in Chicago continue to rise, making ends meet can become even more difficult. Many older adults and disabled adults in Illinois do not have many options for earning extra income, as a recent article in the Chicago Tribune reports. As such, many of those adults have turned to their credit cards to purchase food and to pay monthly bills. As a result, there are numerous seniors and disabled Illinoisans who owe substantial debts to creditors, and they are having difficulty paying back what they owe. In some instances, those debtors may even be subject to debt collection harassment . Given that the creditors are unlikely to be able to collect from persons who have limited assets and largely are living off of Social Security or Supplemental Security Income (federal disability benefits), is there anything that can be done to limit debt col...

Allegations have been levied against payday lenders across the country concerning deceptive lending practices . According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune , debtors who may have been victims of deceptive lending practices in Illinois now may be eligible to have their balances waived. Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan brought a lawsuit in 2014 that made allegations against payday lenders concerning “deceptive fees and costs.” Earlier this month, an Elgin-based payday lender agreed to a settlement, which includes forgiving “$3.5 million in small-dollar, high-interest loans.” What else do you need to know about the recent abusive debt practices settlement? And will the settlement make a difference in lending practices among other payday lenders in Illinois? Details of the Lawsuit and Against All Credit Lenders All Credit Lenders is a company that opened its doors, so to speak, in 1999. While it does have a number of storefront locations in the Chicag...

During the recession, consumer bankruptcy rates rose dramatically across the United States. As a recent article from Crain’s Chicago Business makes clear, there were 822,590 bankruptcies nationwide in 2007, and that number grew to more than one million each year. To put that increase another way, the rate of personal bankruptcy in the country increased by more than 20% during the peak of the recession. But have all states in the U.S. recovered, returning to the pre-recession rates of bankruptcy? As the article clarifies, while the national number of bankruptcies has dropped once again to levels that are even lower than those reported in 2007, Illinois continues to have higher rates of consumer bankruptcy than many other states. What do the higher rates of personal bankruptcy in Illinois tell us? If you live in the Chicago area and have questions about filing for consumer bankruptcy, you should always discuss your case with an experienced bankruptcy attorney. Illino...

Over the last decade, the financial burden of student loan debt has become a major topic for consumer advocates. With trillions of dollars in student loan debt outstanding across the country, many consumers have difficulty making student loan payments, particularly when they are dealing with private loans that do not have income-based repayment options. Who is protecting consumers in Oak Park and other parts of the U.S. when it comes to predatory student lending practices? According to a recent article from Inside Higher Ed , the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has emerged not just as a general regulator of deceptive lending practices , but of student lending practices more specifically. Since its launch in 2011, the CFPB has taken a number of steps to help limit harmful lending practices when it comes to student borrowers. CFPB Offers Enforcement Role in Student Lending As the article explains, the CFPB arose out of the financial crisis with a mand...