Discover Private Student Loan Discharged

We were retained on two defaulted Discover private student loans that totaled about $80,000. These loans were originally issued by Citibank but later sold and transferred to Discover as most Citibank student loans are. In most cases the loans are sent to a third-party collection agency or law firm such as Zwicker and Associates whom handle a large majority of Discover cases. Our client was interested in settling the loans and saving himself around $40,000 $50,000 but after our further review of his situation we noticed that he might be eligible to have the loans discharged completely. Discharging student loans is a rare occurrence especially when dealing with private student loans. Student loans are also almost impossible to discharge in bankruptcy because of the high standard that must be reached. However, if there is a serious disability it is always worth trying to have the loan discharged.

Discover bank is generally one of the most aggressive creditors especially when it comes to student loans. They frequently sue consumers, obtain default judgments, freeze bank accounts and garnish wages. This was a pre-litigation case which gave us some of the leverage as we did not have to charge fees for litigation. Our client suffers from Cerebral palsy and we believed that because of his almost total incapacitation, and the fact that he really would not ever be able to pay these loans off based on his income and government support, he should not be liable for these loans. Discover asked for our client's doctor to fill out a disability application showing that the client suffered from cerebral palsy. After attaching a heavy amount of proof, Discover consented to discharging the full amount of the loan against our client due to his disability.