A group of consumer bankruptcy experts have given a wish list of changes they would make to bankruptcy law’s rules on student loans to another group of experts who could take those changes to Congress later this year, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Bankruptcy lawyers, trustees and other experts who are part of the American Bankruptcy Institute’s Consumer Bankruptcy Committee declared it “time to explore options for dealing successfully with student loan debt in bankruptcy” in a nine-page memo that lays out their frustrations with existing laws. The group of more than 800 ABI members called for Congress to implement several changes, including giving borrowers the power to cancel private loans and creating mediation programs. “We have all seen the effects of burdensome student loans,” committee officials said in the memo. “While we cannot do much about the root causes of skyrocketing education costs and diminishing public support for institutions of higher learning, we can try to suggest ways in which the bankruptcy process can aid the honest, but unfortunate student loan debtor.” The wish list was released to a panel of law professors, federal judges and consumer advocates that formed last year to examine the problems that have arisen within the U.S. consumer bankruptcy system since 1978, the year of the law’s last major overhaul. The Commission on Consumer Bankruptcy, which is also led by the nonpartisan American Bankruptcy Institute, is expected to release a report in December with recommendations on how to fix the problems.
