Lawyers Work to Get Survivors, Creditors Up to Speed With NY's Coerced Debt Protections

Consumer Financial Services Associate Daniel Wilkinson was quoted in the New York Law Journal discussing the compliance challenges creditors face under New York's new coerced debt law, which allows abuse survivors to dispute and void debts an abuser forced onto them.

Daniel spoke to the practical hurdles banks and lenders now face in reviewing coerced debt claims, from training staff on the law's privacy requirements to developing internal standards for assessing whether a debt was truly coerced. He pointed out that creditors are moving cautiously as they build out these new review processes, wary of being the first institution to reject a claim.

"No one wants to be the first creditor that rejects a coerced debt claim," Daniel said. "Everyone's taking a conservative approach to figuring out how to review these, and then, maybe after they get a few, they'll start understanding what are the tell-tale signs of a claim that raises a lot of red flags."

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