Timothy J. Sierra, Bankruptcy Attorney

09/03/2025

View from my room at The Summit

08/17/2022

In a pair of aggressive moves targeting for-profit college chains, the Education Department on Tuesday wiped out about $4 billion in debts owed by students who attended ITT Technical Institute schools and sought to recoup $24 million from DeVry University, the New York Times reported.

05/04/2022

Biden’s Team Eyes $125,000 Income Cutoff for Student Loan Relief

President Joe Biden is considering limiting his program to relieve student debt to Americans earning less than $125,000, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said yesterday, Bloomberg News reported.

FROM ABI HEADLINES DELIVERED- JOHN HARTGEN

04/28/2022

From ABI DAILY HEADLING: The Education Department said Thursday that it will cancel the loans of 28,000 student borrowers who attended a now-defunct for-profit chain of cosmetology schools, the latest move by the Biden administration to address the politically charged issue of student-debt forgiveness, the Wall Street Journal reported.

08/27/2021

In a move that will wipe out $1.1 billion in debt owed by 115,000 borrowers, the Education Department said yesterday that it would forgive the federal loans of students who attended ITT Technical Institute but left after March 2008 without completing a degree, the New York Times reported. ABI Headlines delivered

08/19/2021

PRESS RELEASE FROM DEPT OF EDUCATION

Over 323,000 borrowers who have a total and permanent disability (TPD) will receive more than $5.8 billion in automatic student loan discharges due to a new regulation announced today by the U.S. Department of Education. The change will apply to borrowers who are identified through an existing data match with the Social Security Administration (SSA). It will begin with the September quarterly match with SSA. The Department is also announcing two other policy items related to TPD today. First, the Department will indefinitely extend the policy announced in March to stop asking these borrowers to provide information on their earnings —a process that results in the reinstatement of loans if and when borrowers do not respond—beyond the end of the national emergency. Second, the Department will then pursue the elimination of the three-year monitoring period required under current regulations during the negotiated rulemaking that will begin in October.

05/21/2021

From ABI Rochelle's daily wire: Joint Tax Refund Isn’t Estate Property in Florida if Only One Spouse Files Bankruptcy
In a state that allows a couple to hold personal property as tenants by the entireties, a tax refund is not estate property if only one spouse is in bankruptcy, even when all income was earned by the bankrupt spouse, according to Bankruptcy Judge Karen S. Jennemann of Orlando, Fla.

06/26/2020

for all you bankruptcy historians

The word “bankrupt” comes from the Italian banca rotta, meaning “broken bench.” In Italy, money dealers worked from benches…

10/28/2019

Why FDCPA (and TCPA, FCRA, and TILA) Practitioners Should Read This Article

10/04/2019

On September 25, the CFPB released the latest quarterly consumer credit trends report, which examines how the volume and types of bankruptcy filings…

08/21/2019

Anyone who hasn’t heard about the “student loan crisis” in the U.S. hasn’t been paying attention. U.S. student loan debt is estimated to range from…

08/20/2019

nice case for consumers

Aug 9th, 2019 Eleventh Circuit Joins the Majority: Time-Barred Debt Collection + Implicit Threat of Litigation = Plausible FDCPA Claim by Lauren L. Stricker, Shutts & Bowen, LLP When it comes to collection of a time-barred debt, the Circuit Courts of Appeals are split as to whether an accompanying e...