Student loan servicer appeals landmark $220,000 bankruptcy ruling – By Aarthi Swaminathan (Yahoo) / Jan 24 2020
A student loan servicer is appealing a bankruptcy judge’s watershed decision to discharge all of a U.S. Navy veteran’s student debt.
Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) — a nonprofit that guarantees and services student loans on behalf of the Department of Education (ED) — is challenging the January 7 decision made by Chief U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Cecelia G. Morris, who discharged $221,385.49 in student loan debt for Navy veteran and lawyer Kevin Rosenberg under chapter 7 bankruptcy.
The decision belies the common notion that student debt is not dischargeable under chapter 7.
Judge Morris had applied the Brunner test — a three-factor standard used to identify if the borrower is facing undue hardship and cannot make repayments — to evaluate whether Rosenberg was eligible for discharge.
“This Court will not participate in perpetuating these myths,” Morris wrote her decision. “Rather, this Court will apply the Brunner test as it was originally intended.”
ECMC’s main contention in their appeal is that Rosenberg was licensed to practice law but did not pursue job opportunities in the same field: “Instead of pursuing those opportunities available to him, and paying back his taxpayer-backed federal student loans, Plaintiff, for the past 10 years, has held various positions in the outdoor adventure industry, including starting up and running his own tour guide business.”
The loan servicer also implied that Judge Morris’ interpretation of the Brunner test was lax.
Continue to article: https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/student-loans-bankruptcy-ruling-131844930.html
