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Debtors across both Oregon and Washington who are being harassed by student loan lenders and hope to eliminate these debts through Chapter 7 Bankruptcy must navigate their way through a pretty nasty test. Bankruptcy courts in both Oregon and Washington rely on the three-part Brunner test to asses whether a student loan is dischargeable in bankruptcy based on a claim of undue hardship. This test is based on a thirty-year old U.S. Court of Appeals decision (Brunner v. New York State Higher Education Services Corp., 831 F.2d 395 [2d Cir. 1987])
Under the Brunner test, an Oregon or Washington debtor must demonstrate:
1. The debtor cannot maintain, based on current income and expenses, a minimal standard of living for the debtor and dependents if forced to pay off student loans;
2. Additional circumstances exist indicating that this state of affairs is likely to persist for a significant portion of the repayment period of the student loans; and
3. The debtor has made good faith efforts to repay the loans.
Since the Brunner decision, undue hardship has become the only criterion for discharge of student loans in bankruptcy, and court interpretations of the three prongs have become increasingly restrictive. Some courts interpret a minimal standard of living as the federal poverty level. For a household of one, income from whatever source derived would have to be at or below $11,490 per year and for a household of two, $15,110 per year. It would be extremely difficult to meet this standard if you receive any form of assistance from friends or family or receive anything in the way of government assistance.
Though absolute discharge of student loans can prove to be a pretty elusive goal, both Oregon and Washington debtors can at least find three to five years of relief under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy code. For an explanation of how that might work for you, please feel free to contact me anytime at either 503-232-5303 or 206-674-4559
The original post is titled Student Loans and Bankruptcy , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .
Chapter 13 bankruptcy is one form of bankruptcy under the United States Bankruptcy Code whereby someone reorganizes their debt and pays back either all or a portion of the debt over a 3 to 5 year period. Chapter 13 is most commonly used to save a home that’s in foreclosure. In a Chapter 13, a+ Read MoreThe post What is Chapter 13 bankruptcy? appeared first on David M. Siegel.
You already know you need to file for bankruptcy protection.
Maybe you think that’s the hardest part of the process. In some ways, you’re right – there’s no way to overstate emotional agony involved in deciding on the right way to get out of debt.
After all, once you’ve decided to go for it the process isn’t too tough. Lots of people file for bankruptcy themselves.
In fact, a good chunk of the cases filed in Los Angeles are done without a lawyer involved.
But there’s a difference between doing something and doing it well.
It’s hard to do it right, however. Even some lawyers get it wrong.
Getting Ready To File For Bankruptcy
First, you’re going to need to get your documents in order.
Then you’ll take credit counseling from a credit counselor approved by the Office of the United States Trustee. You can find a list of approved credit counseling agencies here.
Finally, if you’re smart, you’ll have everything all set to go to the case trustee for when he or she is assigned to your case.
Now Prepare Your Bankruptcy Petition
Once you’ve got it all together, you can sit down to prepare your bankruptcy petition; it’s only by filing your petition that you can officially be “in the system”.
The good news is that the form is a simple one.
There’s an official form, and the government provides instructions for you to use so you can be sure to get it right.
Read those instructions carefully; the simplicity of the form is deceptive. One wrong check mark and you’re in for a whole world of difficulty.
File Your Bankruptcy Petition
Head on down to the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, pay your filing fee and submit your Petition. If you’re too broke to pay the filing fee, there’s another form to submit that will either waive the fee or allow you to pay it in installments.
Now pat yourself on the back – you’ve filed for bankruptcy.
There Are A Few More Steps To Take
Remember that credit counseling certification? You’ll need to file it along with another form.
If you have environmentally hazardous or dangerous property, there’s another form.
And if your landlord has a judgment against you for eviction then there’s some more to be done.
There are also bankruptcy schedules, a Statement of Financial Affairs, a means test and other forms to be completed and filed in short order.
All simple, deceptively so. All fraught with pitfalls and traps for the unwary.
Check back tomorrow – we’ll start talking about these pieces of the grand bankruptcy puzzle.
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How To File For Bankruptcy: An Introduction was originally published on Consumer Help Central. If you're seeing this message on another site, it has been stolen and is being used without permission. That's illegal, a violation of copyright, and just plain awful.
Multnomah County is suing a rogue’s gallery of the largest mortgage players including B of A, Wells Fargo, Oregon’s Bank of the Cascades, Chase, Citi, and West Coast Bank for nearly forty million dollars.
The focus of the lawsuit The suit focuses on the mortgage-backed securities system that nearly wrecked the lives of families across Oregon in the later part of the last decade. In essence, the County is going after Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems, or MERS., the property records system that enabled the rapid, complex transactions involving these bundled mortgages, and the banks that cut
The county is arguing that MERS wrecked the public property records system while simultaneously helping mortgage lenders evade transaction fees. Consequently, Multnomah County is suing MERS and 18 co-defendants for misrepresentation, negligence and unjust enrichment, alleging that MERS was fraudulently listed as the lender in a flood of transactions that littered the county’s public records with false records.” Multnomah county is also seeking three-fold repayment of multiple $30 transaction fees avoided through the use of MERS.
The original post is titled Multnomah County Suing Mortgage Monster , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .
Before filing your bankruptcy case, it is important to decide if bankruptcy is your best option. Depending on the specifics of your financial problems, we will gather and discuss as many of the facts in your case. We will want to know all aspects of your financial situation and what your desired outcomes are. [...]
Before filing your bankruptcy case, it is important to decide if bankruptcy is your best option. Depending on the specifics of your financial problems, we will gather and discuss as many of the facts in your case. We will want to know all aspects of your financial situation and what your desired outcomes are. […]The post Gathering all the Facts in Your Bankruptcy Case appeared first on Tucson Bankruptcy Attorneys Trezza & Associates.
A Michigan man may face more than 20 years in federal prison after pleading guilty recently to charges related to money laundering and bankruptcy fraud. Adrian Hassan Tageddine, 42, of Dearborn Heights, admitted to authorities he hid assets including cash and luxury vehicles when he filed for bankruptcy in 1999. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents [...]
Peter Morici, an economist and professor at the Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, claims that forgiving student loan borrowers of their debts will lead only to more bad decisions.
There’s a move in Washington to do something about student loan debt. Senators propose freezing student loan interest rates. Federal agencies issue reports. And, of course, there’s the rolling tide of bills to get private student loans rendered dischargeable in bankruptcy cases.
No wonder: not only is there more than $1 trillion in student loan debt outstanding, but people have finally woken up to the fact that a college degree doesn’t buy you a ton of access to a well-paying job.
Morici argues that letting borrowers of student loan debt off the hook will do nothing but condone their bad financial moves and make the problem worse.
Students, he says, don’t choose the right majors; rather than science and math, they pick majors like English and Philosophy rather than courses of study that lead to gainful employment.
Spoken like a guy who’s forgotten what it’s like to be a college student.
What Morici doesn’t realize is that students go into college in part because they’re told that it’s the only way to achieve greatness. From early in life, kids are taught that it doesn’t matter if they know what they want to do – they’ve got to hit college as quickly as possible.
Once they get to the door of higher education, they’re shown an enormous bill along with an offer of student loans. Of course they sign on the dotted line and accept the money – everyone has been telling them that they have to do so.
Mom and dad, teachers and other authority figures tell you that you’ve got to go to college.
The college tells you that the only way to afford it is to take on student loan debt.
In other words, everyone in your life has essentially been telling you that you need to take out student loans or your future is going to be terrible.
Once you get to college, you’re told to try out different classes until you determine a major. You’ve got time, after all – sample from the menu before settling on a main course.
English, philosophy, and all the liberal arts classes come first. You can go to a scientific major but you won’t unless you intend to go into a field related to that major.
At 18 years old, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re not in a position to make that sort of commitment.
There’s the problem. You’ve been sold on student loan debt as the bedrock of a bright future, yet the university into which you place your trust fails to deliver value commensurate with your financial obligations.
Forgiveness of student loan debt, therefore, merely shifts the burden back to those best able to bear it in the first place.
If universities want to remain able to offer loans, they need to produce graduates who don’t seek to discharge their obligations. Too high of a discharge or default rate jeopardizes their ability to offer new loans, after all.
In order to keep funding new loans, therefore, universities are placed in the position of counseling students on the effects of taking out student loans. Not only that, they become responsible for educating their students effectively and making a real effort to place graduates in employment situations that offer a salary significant enough to pay off that student debt load.
If there are no jobs for graduates, the hallowed halls of education need to change.
Costs need to be brought in line with the market reality.
The course of study needs to adapt to the world in which we live.
Students must be taught exactly what they’re getting themselves into when they sign up for a student loan.
Student loan forgiveness forces the university’s hand, it doesn’t encourage more bad decisions on the part of America’s next generation.
Image credit: marsmet531
Does Student Loan Forgiveness Encourage Bad Decision-Making? was originally published on Consumer Help Central. If you're seeing this message on another site, it has been stolen and is being used without permission. That's illegal, a violation of copyright, and just plain awful.
There technically is no age limit or restriction for filing a personal bankruptcy. You have to be an individual and you have to be in a certain jurisdiction for a certain amount of time. You don’t have to be an adult, you don’t have to be 18, and you don’t even have to be 15. There is no age limit. However, it makes sense if you are not going to be someone who can incur debt or credit unless you are an adult. Credit card companies are not going to issue credit cards unless you are over 18. You are not going to be able to enter into a valid contract in most states unless you are 18. So technically, there is no age limit or restriction.
However, we typically see clients that range from 20 years old to 70 years old, depending on the situation. The majority of clients are somewhere between those two ages and it is something that we can help with no matter what age you are. But keep in mind, there is no age restriction, there is no age limit and there is no particular dollar amount that you must be at for a Chapter 7.
If you are thinking of filing a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, I recommend that you hire an experienced attorney who handles bankruptcy on a day to day basis. I am a member of the American Bankruptcy Institute. I have over 21 years of experience. I have spoken and written extensively on the topic and I have counseled more than 10,000 individuals and families with regard to debt. I am also a certified counselor with regard to the personal financial management class and I go through budgets on a day-to-day basis, going through income and expenses and advising clients on how they can better themselves by making subtle changes to their budget and the way they spend money.
If you are looking to file a bankruptcy, make sure you interview a qualified bankruptcy attorney who will give you advice on which chapter is best and how it all works. You don’t want to go to an attorney who is going to put you in a chapter that makes the attorney more money. You want to go to an attorney who’s going to put you in a chapter that helps you. You can feel confident when you come into my office that you are going to receive a lot of literature on the subject. You’re going to be able to watch videos. You’re going to be able to read from prior clients as to how their experience was.
There is no particular debt limit that you must have in order to file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy. It really depends upon the particular person and their particular situation. I have had clients who have wanted to file a bankruptcy over a $5000 debt. I have had other clients who had $100,000 worth of debt and were fighting against filing a Chapter 7 and getting a fresh start. You have to determine whether or not you feel you can either pay your debt back over time or whether or not you need a fresh start to be able to survive.
The rule of thumb that I use is typically the six month rule. I advise my clients that after six months of making payments, if you have not put a serious dent in your debt, if you are just simply paying minimum payments or eat if you don’t see your debt going down, then Chapter 7 is probably a good solution for you to get out of debt once and for all and get back on your feet. If, on the other hand, you feel you have the ability to repay the debt in six months, or make a serious dent in the debt, then maybe you don’t want to file a Chapter 7 and you don’t want to take the hit on your credit.
If you are someone who has available money per month, maybe you lost your job and now you are back working, maybe you were ill and now you are back healthy, well then a Chapter 13 is a good way to repay your debt. There is no minimum debt that you need to have to file a Chapter 13 but there are some maximum amounts. If you exceed those maximum amounts of secured and unsecured debt, then you will not qualify for Chapter 13 and you will be forced into a Chapter 11. Your attorney will be able to sit down with you and advise you as to which chapter is best, how it all works and come up with a payment plan to get your case moving forward.
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