Oak Park Real Estate & Estate Planning Blog

If you have student loan debt and your servicer is Navient, it is important to be aware of recent allegations of deceptive and unfair lending practices against this entity. According to a recent article in The New York Times , the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has filed a complaint against what the newspaper calls “the nation’s student loan serving behemoth,” alleging that the lender took unnecessary shortcuts in addition to deceiving and cheating borrowers. According to the CFPB’s complaint, Navient “failed customers at every stage of repayment.” What else should you know about the CFPB’s complaint against Navient? If your student loans are serviced through Navient, how might the complaint impact you? Specific Deceptive and Unfair Lending Practice Allegations Against Navient As the article clarifies, the allegations against Navient, a accompany that “oversees $300 billion in student loans for 12.5 million borrowers,” are numerous. The complaint a...

Back in October, we discussed how the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to hear a case concerning debt collection companies that attempt to collect on old debt from consumers who have sought bankruptcy protection . In the case of Midland Funding v. Johnson , the Supreme Court will decide whether a debt collector can be punished for attempting to collect on old debt after the debtor has filed for personal bankruptcy . That case is now before the Supreme Court, and the justices have begun hearing arguments in the case. According to a recent article in Forbes , Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s reactions to arguments from Midland Funding make clear her position on companies like Midland Funding that buy old debts and later try to collect them. If Justice Sotomayor finds against Midland Funding, how will the Court ultimately rule? How do Justice Sotomayor’s reactions during oral arguments give us some potential clues into the Court’s thinking about the case? Sotomayor Questions Couns...

As many consumers in the Oak Park area know, the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) is designed to protect debtors against unfair, abusive, and fraudulent debt collection practices. When debt collectors violate the law , consumers who have been harmed may be able to file a claim against the debt collection company. As a recent article in Reuters points out, companies that buy old debt, typically for “pennies on the dollar,” often attempt to collect those debts from consumers even if the statute of limitations has run out. Now, as the article points out, a proposed class action lawsuit against Santander Consumer USA, Inc. will now be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. The case asks the question of when a debt buyer will be considered a debt collector for the purposes of federal law. Are Debt Buyers Considered to be “Debt Collectors” Under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act? The case, Henson v. Santander Consumer USA, Inc. , addresses the issue of “whethe...

Is there a link between the rate of personal bankruptcies in the U.S. and the number of auto loans sought by American consumers? According to a recent article in Forbes , “the closely watched rate of personal bankruptcies is low and trending lower,” and the total rate of bankruptcies in 2016 might be at a record low since 2005. What is the connection between bankruptcy filings and auto loans? In short, bankruptcy proceedings tend to impact auto lenders in ways that they do not like. As such, a low number of consumer bankruptcy filings could be good news for auto lenders, but it could also be good news for consumers. What else should you know? Record Low Number of Bankruptcy Filings Across the Country in 2016 As the article reported, as of the end of December of 2016, the executive director of the American Bankruptcy Institute (ABI), Samuel Gerdano, emphasized that it was likely that total bankruptcies in 2016 would come in at under 800,000. That total is the se...

If you are considering personal bankruptcy in Oak Park as an option to discharge student loans, you may have an easier path forward than you might expect. While it remains difficult to discharge student loans through Chapter 7 bankruptcy , a recent article in The Wall Street Journal reports that “borrowers are beginning to win battles to erase some student loans in bankruptcy court, overcoming stiff obstacles that have generally blocked that path except in extreme cases of financial hardship.” In other words, it may be possible to discharge student loans depending upon your specific circumstances. Now that we are entering into a new year, what do you need to know about student loans and bankruptcy in 2017? Reinterpreting the Definition of a “Student Loan” As the article explains, the primary way in which a number of debtors have been able to discharge their student loans through Chapter 7 bankruptcy does not concern a change to the way that bankruptcy courts ap...