Consumer Debt

Consumer

Consumer

Business Debate Resolved: Success fees for financial advisors should be eliminated. (Sides to be chosen by a coin toss at the beginning of the session.) Candace C. Carlyon Shea & Carlyon Ltd.; Las Vegas Frank A. Merola Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP; Los Angeles Judicial Debate Resolved: Claims benefiting from third-party guaranties may be separately classified. Pro: Hon. Barry Russell U.S. Bankruptcy Court (C.D. Calif.); Los Angeles Con: Hon. Eileen W. Hollowell U.S. Bankruptcy Court (D. Ariz.); Tucson Consumer Debate Resolved: Section 523(a)(8) limiting discharge of student loans should be eliminated. Pro: Kasey Cameron Nye Mesch, Clark & Rothschild, PC; Tucson, Ariz. Con: Madeleine C. Wanslee Gust Rosenfeld, PLC; Phoenix

The information you glean from Part I needs to be viewed with the practical approach found in Part II. If you are challenging dischargeability, how do you prove it? All debtors are in a hardship, but what is an undue hardship, and again, what evidence should you have at the ready to prove the debtor’s case. Using a short vignette, this panel will address the evidentiary and practical quandaries that must be overcome in order to plead and prove a case for dischargeability of loans under Section 523(a)(8).

Debtors frequently emerge from bankruptcy still burdened by a burgeoning student loan debt. A private “loan for an educational benefit” can limit the fresh start many debtors need is increasingly being used to test the nondischargeability of might have once been general unsecured claims. This panel will discuss the emerging issues and case law surrounding nondischargeability, as well as strategies for maximizing the benefits of the bankruptcy system for struggling debtors.