Over 5 billion dollars in student loans may be forgiven by a judge at an upcoming hearing. Many borrowers who have fallen behind on their payments are being aggressively pursued in court by the National Collegiate, but many judges are finding their evidence lacking.

The National Collegiate is a body of separate trusts that collects private student loans from companies such as Bank of America, PNC bank, Credit One, and many more.

In some cases, judges are finding that the National Collegiate is unable to prove ownership of the loans. Not being able to prove ownership of the documents that are missing gives the judge no other choice than to relieve the former students of their debt. In some states, like New Jersey, Ohio, and Texas, debts have already been cleared have been already cleared.

There is a possibility of more borrowers being forgiven. The National Collegiate’s portfolio between the years 2012 and 2016 need to be investigated. If all 800,000 loans fail to contain the information with the owners of the loans, then the National Collegiate will have to stop collecting payments.  The loans in question equal about 12 billion dollars.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau will contact those who will be forgiven for their loans.