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arkovich_law-narrowCall me jaded, but the Florida Uniformed Servicemembers’ Protection Act is a junk consumer law.   

 The Florida Uniformed Servicemembers’ Protection Act was enacted by the Republican led legislature over twenty years ago to make a lot of noise about how much the GOP loves veterans.  Like most consumer statutes enacted by the Legislature since Democrats last ran the state in the 1990s, it is all about appearance and no substance. It is the paradigm of how not to write an effective consumer statute.  

 The only thing it added was some stupid requirement that state agencies create literature telling service members about the SCRA. And no requirement that any business actually hand them out.  Quite frankly, I doubt anyone at the state even bothered to check the literature.

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It’s free, it’s easy, it’s a way to get IDR credit for the Covid period, and to show your federal student loans were in good standing for the past 3.5 years during Covid.  Don’t let your federal loans remain in default, there is no win in doing so.  They don’t negotiate like private student loans do.

To use Fresh Start to get out of default, you must contact your loan holder. If your loans are held by ED, you can contact us using one of the three methods below. If your loans are held by a guaranty agency, you’ll need to call that agency. Find contact information for guaranty agencies.

If you don’t know who holds your loans, call 1-800-621-3115 (TTY 1-877-825-9923).

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arkovich_law-narrowSection 524(c) of the Bankruptcy Code sets forth the procedures in which a discharged debt may be reaffirmed. Creditor’s solicitation to reaffirm a discharged debt which does not comply with 524(c) is a violation of the discharge injunction. In re Latanowich, 207 BR 326, (Bankr.D.Mass.1997).

Any time you are asked to repay a debt that was discharged in a bankruptcy, you should consult with an attorney to see if that is legal.  Often it is not.

We represent consumers in the Tampa Bay Florida area – in most surrounding counties.  Reach out to us if you have questions about your prior bankruptcy, or are considering getting rid of debt now.

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Christie_1Servicers (mostly Mohela at this time) are saying that borrowers should submit their recertification paperwork on time (You can upload it and/or mail it in), but it will not be processed until the injunction is lifted.

If you don’t recertify on time, you will get booted to the standard repayment plan, but you can’t recertify on time because they are not processing the paperwork! UGH!

Here is how to avoid that.

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Christie_1A few things I was thinking of today.  First, we received notice from Nelnet of a client approval for Total and Permanent Disability.  This particular client was pretty healthy, but was of advanced age of 76.  I’m pretty sure no employer would be interested at age 76.  He’s been retired for 13 years from a defense contractor and the military prior to that.  Since he flew jets for the military, that was an easy sell for the TPD program.  The fact that the program he used to work on for the defense contractor has long since gone away, plus he no longer has a security clearance and the vast majority of his skills are likely outdated, we leaned on the SSI’s verbage for advanced age.

Under the Social Security Administration’s website at ssa.gov, the Code of Federal Regulations Section 404.1563 states under (e) that they consider that for a person of advanced age (age 55 or older), age will significantly impact a person’s ability to adjust to other work.

I’d rather not compare our client to an old dog, but you know that saying that an old dog can’t learn new tricks.  Well, it kind of applies here.  We sent some of these regs and arguments to our doctor and obtained the physician certification shortly thereafter.  Today, we received the official notice that our client’s six figure loan balance was forgiven.

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arkovich_law-narrowThe Federal Reserve is meeting today and widely expected to start to reduce interest rates.  I last heard that there was a 55% likelihood for a .50 cut.  Frankly, I’d expect a .25 cut.  But if they want to reach a goal of 100 basis points cut by year end, they almost have to do a .50 cut today.

So one big question: how much and how quickly will that trickle down to ordinary consumer debt?

A lot of people would like to avoid bankruptcy.  I get it.   The Wall Street Journal published an article yesterday that while consumer credit debt is up 11% over last year, other sources of credit are drying up and no reasonable alternatives exist.

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ABC-action-newsWe were interviewed yesterday by Mary O’Connell for an ABC Action News story on student loan repayment:  https://www.abcactionnews.com/news/region-hillsborough/recent-report-sheds-light-on-how-federal-student-loan-borrowers-are-managing-repayment#google_vignette.

Fortunately, we were able to discuss the deadlines coming up in just a couple weeks!

“A lot of people are really squished on everyday living expenses that basically student loans come last,” said Christie Arkovich, the founding attorney for Arkovich Law. “And so, if you have the choice of paying rent or a car payment or food, you’re not going to choose student loans over one of those things.”

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Christie_1The processing of PSLF was turned over by Mohela to ED during the three months preceding July 1 and all work was paused during the transfer.  Starting July 1, ED would have re-started reviews as it was doing the calculations from that point forward.  Then the whole system paused July 1 with the pending SAVE litigation and injunctions against it and the 400 pages of regulations that were to take place July 1.  There is nothing delaying PSLF calculations and forgiveness, but ED has not restarted those for some reason.  There is a hearing Oct 24, where there may be some clarification on what ED can continue to do, but the circuit court refused to clarify its ruling about two weeks ago.  I feel that ED is not processing PSLF right now as a pollical move to throw more of the educational system into chaos.  Either way, we can’t do anything about it.

Eventually, PSLF will restart its calculations.

If you are short just a few months time, you could choose to do the 10 year standard payment which counts toward PSLF and then submit an application for PSLF discharge.  Make sure you are using the 10 year standard, not 20-30 years.  It will be higher at 10 years, but it’s the only standard payment that counts for PSLF.  If that payment is too high, and they begin re-processing IDR applications (they are paused right now), you could file a request for another IDR plan other than SAVE – such as IBR.  Finish the 120, then file the PSLF discharge application.  We were finding that paper IDR applications were being processed, but they too seem to have stopped.  Do nothing online, the entire online portals are paused.  When sending a paper application, be sure to send certified mail with tracking information.

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arkovich_law-narrowWant to get out of debt by the end of the year?  It’s possible.  Really!  How, you ask?

File Chapter 7.  These bankruptcy cases only last three months –  90 days.

Wouldn’t it be nice to stop trying to juggle everything?  Feeling overwhelmed with your finances?

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