Florida Bankruptcy Court now offers help for repayment of student loans

This help currently only applies to the middle district of Florida bankruptcy court. The video features Bob and Tammy Branson of Bransonlaw.com.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Welcome back, everybody. My name is Tom Olsen, the name of the show is Olsen on Law, every Saturday between 11 and noon right here on News 96.5. My guests today are Bob and Tammy Branson and Paul Urich. They're all in the bankruptcy industry. We've been focusing on student loans. Let's say it one more time about something very special happened on October 1, 2019, in the Middle District of bankruptcy, and that is a judge. What's the name of that judge?

Tammy Branson: Mike Williamson.

Attorney Tom Olsen: He signed an administrative order, in layman's terms, very quickly, what does it say?

Tammy Branson: Basically, it says if a debtor has student loans, they can file a notice of participation that they want to participate in the program. They're going to have guidelines to upload applications and financial documents, and then the student loan servicer and the government, their lawyers are going to participate and have their own guidelines to respond to us and to process things in a place where we can talk.

Attorney Tom Olsen: The student loan servicers intentionally or unintentionally have been collecting money from the debtors or people who owe the student loans, but they've not been giving them good advice or options about which repayment program they should be in. Now, they're going to have to work with the borrowers to get them into the right program.

Tammy Branson: Exactly.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Did you say there's going to be a portal for handling this?

Tammy Branson: Yes, part of the program is the portal that we use for the mortgage modification. We're also going to use it for the student loans. It's one place where the secure data is going to be the applications and there's a messaging system. This is where we're going to upload the documents and talk to the student loan servicers.

Attorney Tom Olsen: Do you anticipate some kind of sanctions against the servicers if they don't file things on time or they don't properly work with the borrower, the student loan person who owes it that the court might say, "Okay, you screwed it up, you don't have to be repaid now."

Tammy Branson: Interesting question, the administrative order does include an element of good faith. All parties have to act in good faith. I would imagine if anyone broke the order and they were compelled to comply with whatever they were doing wrong and they did not do that it could lead to sanctions if you violate a court order.