In 2013, graduating seniors left college with an average debt load of $30,000. That’s nearly double the amount that students graduated with 20 years ago. A recent study reveals that if you factor in credit card debt and money borrowed from family during school, students are really graduating with an average of over $35,000.

A separate study released Thursday by Fidelity Investments painted a bleaker picture. The class of 2013 carried an average of $35,200, Fidelty’s study found, which includes credit card debt and money owed to family members. Half of all graduates with debt said in the survey that they were surprised at how much they accumulated.

Given that student loan collections bureaus are among the most aggressive debt collectors out there, graduating seniors are in for a rude shock once they leave school and are unable to find jobs to pay the monthly minimum payments.

Given how difficult these loans are to discharge in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy, student loan lenders must be ecstatic to find themselves in an almost risk free business. While these lenders may be happy, the overall picture young Washington and Oregon local graduates is obviously pretty bleak. Beyond our graduates and their families, the student loan problem has repercussions for all of us. First, the student loan dollars are almost all paid to the federal government or to out of state lenders so repayment dollars leave the Pacific Northwest. Second, experts believe that the student loan expansion will significantly burden the housing market. Young people will be so caught up in trying to fulfill their student loan obligations that they will be unable to participate in the housing market. A weak housing market, as anyone who has lived through the last decade will tell you, is the last thing we need.

Contact our offices immediately if you are struggling to meet your student loan burden and the creditors are calling. Though it is extremely difficult to discharge these loans, except under certain very narrow circumstances, there is relief worth discussing under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code. I will look forward to hearing from you.

The original post is titled Crushing Burden of Student Loans in Oregon and Washington , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .

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 .

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 .

It is hoped that changes to Oregon’s mortgage mediation program allowing the mediation option in judicial foreclosure will be enacted by the 2013 Oregon legislature.The state senators who negotiated the foreclosure mediation program have said they want to expand mediation requirements to judicial foreclosures, since more lenders are going through the courts.

IF you are in the midst of a judicial foreclosure, there is no need to go it alone. Contact the Northwest Debt Relief Law Firm at 503-232-5303 or 206-674-4559. We would be more than happy to help.

The original post is titled Mediation and Oregon Judicial Foreclosure? , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .

Apparently the cuts will affect nearly a third of the total 4,700 Boeing IT positions here, well paying jobs all, and continue a streak of cuts that has hit several divisions of the company since March. While Boeing will be offering severance packages to some employees who volunteer for layoff, this news provides little in the way of long term comfort to families who have depended on Boeing for generations.

The original post is titled Boeing Layoffs Harm Seattle and Tacoma Washington Area Consumers , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .

Ultimately within a couple months of filing, you may have to show that your federal and state returns have been filed for the last four years before your Chapter 13 Plan is approved. Moreover, the Trustee must receive your most recent filed tax returns at least seven days before your 341 hearing.

Perhaps the most tax related requirement that you must meet during the course of your Chapter 13 case is that you must remain current on your tax filings during the entire life of your Chapter 13 case. Every year you will need to send on copies of your returns to your Bankruptcy attorney so that they can be reviewed, redacted and sent on to the Trustee. Failure to meet this requirement may quickly result in the Trustee filing a motion to dismiss your case.

The original post is titled Tax Requirements and Advantages in Chapter 13 Bankruptcy , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .

If the landlord does not already have a judgment against a tenant before the bankruptcy filing, and the landlord wants to either initiate or continue eviction proceedings, he is barred from doing so by the imposition of the automatic stay. The landlord may, however, file a motion for relief from automatic stay to either initiate or continue an eviction. Washington and Oregon Bankruptcy Courts often grant these requests.

If you are on the cusp of getting evicted from your home or you are slated to appear in court on an eviction matter, please feel free to contact the Northwest Debt Relief Law Firm so that we can go over your options.

The original post is titled Bankruptcy Relief For Eviction in Oregon and Washington , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .

When you put the softest possible spin on payday loans, you could say, at least in theory, that payday loans meet a real need for emergency cash, allowing borrowers to obtain short term cash advances on wages during pressing circumstances. Oregon and Washington consumers secure these loans by providing a postdated check or electronic access to their bank account. While this practice sounds harmless enough, the reality is that the terms of these short term loans have wrecked the lives of consumers throughout the Pacific Northwest.

The loans carry nearly unspeakably burdensome rates, often ranging from 200 percent to 500 percent. Loan sharks should do so well. Moreover, your average pay day loan borrower takes out eight of these loans per year. On an average loan size of $375, borrowers will pay about $520 in interest. Since the average payday borrower can only repay about a hundred a month, taking out a payday loan almost always touches off a cycle of taking out more payday loans to pay off old payday loans.

Though most payday lenders are storefront or Web operations, major banks have gotten in on the action. Both US Bank and Wells Fargo offer pay day loans under different brand names with interest rates that might shock their day to day clientele. Moreover, banks such as Bank of America and JP Morgan Chase have profited enormously by allowing payday lenders to make withdrawals. Because payday loan borrowers are twice as likely to incur overdraft fees, pay day loans are extremely profitable to the banks that allow these withdrawals.

The original post is titled Oregon and Washington Consumers and Payday Loans , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .

This change largely came about as a result of litigants successfully challenging the practices followed by these agencies in updating reports after bankruptcy. While the reporting has greatly improved, it is critically important that when you do file bankruptcy and obtain an actual discharge from the bankruptcy court, you take the next step and review your credit report six months after the discharge date to make sure that the debts are accurately reflected.

The reality is that most people bounce back incredibly quickly with respect to their credit scores in the eighteen months after discharge, but this process is going to be greatly slowed if the reports are not properly reflecting the status of the debts six months after discharge.

If you have filed bankruptcy in either Washington or Oregon and it was discharged at least six months ago, you should probably ask yourself whether you have really checked your credit reports thoroughly.

The original post is titled Credit Reports Now Reflecting Debts Discharged in Bankruptcy More Accurately. , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .

The problem is you don’t get the Car Ownership Allowance deduction without a car payment. So if we take two bankruptcy filers and one has a car payment and the other doesn’t, they might each ultimately have the same payment for the same period of time, but one of them is going to pay off a car during that time period and the other one is going to pay more money to her credit cards.

This is not to say that you should immediately head out to the car lot to buy a car prior to filing. You should always consult with your attorney before making this purchase because there are additional factors that determine whether purchasing a car will have any significance on the amount that you will have to pay back in your Chapter 13.

At the same time, if you are driving a beater now and you see yourself needing a car within the next two years or so, buying the car prior to filing is probably going to be a much smoother and cheaper process than waiting until after the case has been filed.

Again, the key is checking in with your attorney prior to heading out to the car lot. Please feel free to give me a call anytime at either 206-674-4559 or 503-860-6868 if you have any questions at all, thanks.

The original post is titled Buying a Car Before Filing a Chapter 13 Bankruptcy in Washington , and it came from Oregon Bankruptcy Lawyer | Portland, Salem, and Vancouver, Wa .