A federal bankruptcy judge in Virginia has ruled that students who can’t repay their student loans are entitled to be forgiven.
The ruling came after a lawsuit by the U.S. Department of Education, which had sought to keep students from receiving any student loan relief.
The U.K. Daily Mail reports that the judge in Norfolk ruled that the Education Department has failed to provide adequate notice to borrowers that the bankruptcy court would begin issuing a court order allowing students to be reimbursed for their loans.
The judge, James R. Stacey, wrote in a court document that he believed that the student loan debtors had no right to a fair trial.
Stacey also said that students should have been given an opportunity to contest the bankruptcy order and for the government to have the opportunity to prove that the students owed the loans.