Defrauded student loan borrowers will see some relief, thanks to an Obama-era rule a federal judge ordered immediately implemented Tuesday.

The 2016 borrower defense rule outlines a way for student borrowers to apply for loan forgiveness if they were defrauded or misled by their college. Just before the rule was slated to take effect in 2017, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos announced plans to delay implementation and revise it. After a flurry of litigation, U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss ruled that the delay was unlawful, and the borrower defense rule took effect Tuesday.

“The Department had no legal right to delay the rule in the first place, and now they have no choice but to cede the fight and implement the 2016 borrower defense rule as they should have done a long time ago,” said Eileen Connor, director of litigation at the Project on Predatory Student Lending, in a statement.

Following the collapse of for-profit Corinthian Colleges Inc. in 2015 and ITT Technical Institute in 2016, which were accused of predatory practices, thousands of students were left with a massive amounts of student debt. Under the borrower defense rule, borrowers can petition the Education Department for federal student loan discharges if they can prove that their school defrauded them under state law.

Here is what federal student loan borrowers need to know about the ruling.

Defrauded borrowers can receive automatic closed school discharge. The rule provides an automatic discharge of federal student loans if a borrower's school closed on or after Nov. 1, 2013, and he or she did not enroll in another institution that participates in the federal financial aid program within three years.

"Students that took out loans to attend these schools within 120 days of them closing and who have not transferred their credits elsewhere should be eligible for full and automatic relief," says Senya Merchant, a program manager at the Center for American Progress.

Under the judge’s ruling, former students at closed schools who have not yet received a closed school discharge might get one without having to fill out the form, says Preston Cooper, a research analyst in higher education policy at the American Enterprise Institute.

"It’s important to note that the closed school discharge – which cancels your loans if your school closed – is distinct from the borrower defense discharge, which cancels your loans if your school defrauded you," Cooper says. "Corinthian students seeking a borrower defense discharge rather than a closed school discharge probably won’t see much change since Corinthian closed before 2017, when the new borrower defense rules start applying."

Borrower defense claims are limited to when a federal loan is issued. A borrower defense discharge may also be granted if a college or institution misrepresented its program; in some of these instances, borrowers may be able to justify a discharge of their federal student loans.

Cooper says this ruling gives borrowers taking out loans between 2017 and 2020 access to the more lenient loan forgiveness rules. The rule makes it easier for "students who believe they were defrauded by colleges to get their loans forgiven, but only for loans taken out after July 1, 2017," he says.

The Trump administration still plans to revise the rule. While the Education Department concedes it can no longer delay the 2016 rule, the agency has indicated it still wants to rewrite the regulations.

"The Secretary continues to believe the rule promulgated by the previous administration is bad policy, and the Department will continue the work of finalizing a rule that protects both borrowers and taxpayers. The Department will soon be providing further information regarding the next steps for implementation of the 2016 borrower defense regulation," said Liz Hill, U.S. Department of Education press secretary, in a statement.

Opponents of DeVos' proposed changes to the borrower defense rule say the Education Department now has to follow legal procedures to change the formal rule. Borrowers can expect the current rule to remain in effect until at least July 2020.

"Department of Education officials have acknowledged that they cannot provide a reasoned response to the flood of public support for the 2016 rules for anything earlier than that 2020 effective date" says Yan Cao, a fellow at The Century Foundation.

Borrowers who think they may qualify for a loan discharge under the current borrower defense rules can file a claim at studentaid.ed.gov.