Lawyers often spend too much time focused on whether a debtor meets the Brunner test for undue hardship that they miss major opportunities to reduce and eliminate federal and private student loan debt. Many people are in forbearance for years while their loan balances continue to grow. Taking advantage of…
Courts are divided on this issue. The answer may matter as to whether a debtor in bankruptcy must pass the means test. The federal Bankruptcy Code defines consumer debt as debt incurred by an individual “primarily for a personal, family, or household purpose.” … The court may classify student loans as either consumer debt or non-consumer debt. Some courts, like…
Our record now for obtaining forgiveness of federal student loans for one client is over a million dollars. So there is no cap — and this took less than three months. Client consulted with us on 11/11/19 and the Total and Permanent Disability forgiveness of over one million dollars was…
President Trump’s proposal to eliminate public service is not nearly as bad as the headlines make it appear. Basically, 99.5% of folks are being denied for PSLF right now because they do not know how to qualify. Their federal student loan servicers are doing a poor job of communicating to…
See below for tips to end roadblocks faced by our older population when dealing with student loans! In a Yahoo Finance article this week, several problems were outlined and addressed during Secretary DeVos’ testimony on Capitol Hill. First, lengthy delays in the Borrower Defense to Repayment program for those who…
Some of our student loan clients have asked what they can make in terms of income and still be approved for a social security disability discharge. Normally we tell them income from employment counts, income from investments do not. For those that fear that they have to do a little…
Many federal student loans placed in in-school deferment will accrue interest during school and capitalize upon graduation: Loan types that do not require payment of interest when deferring student loans include: Subsidized Federal Stafford Loans Subsidized Direct Subsidized FFEL Consolidation Loans Direct Subsidized Loans Federal Perkins Loans Consolidation Loans Loan types that do…
Interesting times to be a student loan attorney. Just this week, a key decision was issued by the Fifth Circuit in In re: Crocker, No. 18-20254 which discharged private student loans. Why is this important? Well, it’s the first published Circuit level case on this issue. And the Court ruled…
Sometimes, in a bankruptcy, we want to separately classify student loans, particularly federal student loans, where our client debtors can benefit from public service or income driven plans with debt forgiveness. It’s also helpful to separately classify private student loans if we’ve otherwise reached a settlement agreement with the creditor. …
The Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida maintains its own newsletter called Court Connection which is distributed among court personnel and attorneys throughout the Middle District of Florida. This Court is the third most busy bankruptcy district in the country! One of the reasons it’s so active is…