Advocates and lawmakers are urging New York State governor Kathy Hochul to sign a bill making it easier for victims of domestic abuse to no longer be held liable for coerced debt ahead of the Dec. 19 deadline.
When Nicole Campbell, a single mother of three, escaped her abuser in April, she thought she was finally safe. But, when Campbell went through a financial program at a shelter in New York City where she was staying, she learned that there were more hurdles in her way. After a credit check, she discovered that her abuser had tried taking out a loan in her name, impacting her credit score.
"It's very it's really tough and hard, because it's like you're trying to get - you leave them, you're trying to get your life together, but then again, they're messing you up financially in the same aspect," said Campbell. "It does become like a financial burden that you feel like you're never going to get out.”
Campbell says she was able to flag the loan and has been fixing her credit for the last eight months. Lawyers and advocates who work with domestic violence survivors say that cases like Campbell’s are very common with abusers going even as far as getting the loan in the survivor’s name. Oftentimes, the survivors still face economic abuse in the form of credit cards, personal loans, and cars being taken out in their name.
Naomi Young is a senior staff attorney at CAMBA Legal Services, an organization that works closely with domestic abuse victims. She says, survivors often times do not get to leave their abusive relationship with a clean slate.
“We were, as divorce attorneys, seeing that even if we won somebody a favorable determination in a divorce, that they were still walking away from the situation economically vulnerable," said Young. "Because of the debts that they were carrying so often the result of economic abuse in the relationship.”
When survivors do try to dispute the debt, Young said they have to litigate with the creditors which ends up costing the survivor more time and money. She says this is why her organization and other advocates pushed for a bill in the New York State legislature that would shield survivors from liability for coerced debt. The bill, which passed both the New York Senate and Assembly in June, would make it easier for domestic abuse survivors to dispute the debt. If signed into law, survivors would no longer be on the hook for the debt if they can provide proof of the coerced debt to a qualified third party. New York State Assemblymember Linda Rosenthal, a strong supporter of the bill, says this legislation will help creditors go after the right person.
“That's what this bill is about, providing a mechanism for the survivor to say, 'these were not my debts, they were someone else's debts'," said Rosenthal. "Then they can move forward, and the creditor can go after the perpetrator, not the victim.”
Rosenthal, who represents the 67th District in Manhattan, also addressed the concerns of creditors, saying the fine print of the bill makes it harder for people to lie about having coerced debt, a main concern of opponents of the bill.
“The last thing that a survivor who's trying to rebuild their lives and get away from a life of violence is going to think of doing is lying about debt," said Rosenthal. "There are mechanisms within the bill that assure that, under penalty of perjury, the survivor saying the debts are not mine, has to have to attest that: These were not their debts.”
In Campbell’s eyes, a bill like this is crucial in helping survivors like her start fresh and thrive after escaping abuse.
“Us survivors, I think that we deserve freedom across the board, because a lot has been taken from us while we're in with these abuses, and you know, we come out, we go in isolation, we feel lost," said Campbell. "And I just want to feel like we deserve freedom across the board. And I know it's going to get way better if I waited eight months to get myself together. I believe that it will get better for a lot of other people.”
The bill now awaits Governor Hochul’s signature ahead of the Dec. 19 deadline.
