Moving Forward: Making Debtor Remedies More Effective

Melissa Jacoby

MF10-14: A reference to remedies in debtor-creditor law usually conjures up images of the rights of creditors to enforce obligations when debtors default. Whether due to policymakers’ interest in robust credit markets or political economy, creditors in the U.S. have considerable power to direct state actors and resources toward collecting and enforcing private debts. Nonetheless, debtor-creditor law must and does include protections for borrowers, especially consumer borrowers. Furthermore, these remedies are available even when – and often especially when – a debtor indisputably is in default...