oceanblue68
Junior Member
North Carolina
I am plaintiff pro se in adversary proceeding to discharge student loans under 523a8b undue hardship.
Defendants attorney sent me this email.
I would like to know if you think he is giving me legal advice.
He tells me to participate in the IBR/consolidation or TPD discharge and dismiss my case. He says if I need to I can later open it back up, dismiss without prejudice.
I had filed a consolidation application and he asked me to send it to him to expedite. I was thinking of cancelling the consolidation due to all I heard about Nelnet. But after getting the attorney's "advice" I decided not to and consolidation was best thing.
He keeps saying he cant advise me, but in my opinion that is what he is doing!! He is telling me what to do. Your opinions are appreciated.
Do you think this is self serving and only for his needs? I feel misled. Now my case will be closed. I have a strong case to discharge and feel I would have won.
I pursued administrative relief and now I dont have the option to file a law suit later! I am so upset by this!
"
I will look into the status of your consolidation application. From what you sent me, it appears that you submitted the application to Nelnet, rather than sending it to me so I could send it on for expedited review, as I had suggested you do. I will check with my contact at Education, but you may need to check with Nelnet since you submitted the application to them. In any event, I will let you know what I hear from Education.
In response to your other questions, I can only point you to the information that is available to you online, including at this website: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/deferment-forbearance. I cannot give you legal advice or tell you what you should do with your student loan debt, or otherwise act as your advocate, because I represent Education as a defendant in the lawsuit you brought against them.
However, I again want to make you aware of your consolidation/IBR option and, especially, your TPD option, in part because those options may give you much of the relief you seeking in your complaint and may save us all, including the court, the time and effort required by litigation. To that end, I have attached the TPD application, which includes at Section 4 the required physician’s certification. I understand you are having difficulty having a doctor complete the certification. Do you know if Dr. R worked with a psychiatrist or another medical doctor (MD or DO) in rendering her March 15, 2015 evaluation? If she did, she may fill out the certification, sign it and have the psychiatrist or medical doctor co-sign it at the bottom saying they endorse the diagnosis and prognosis. Maybe this is something you’ve already looked in, but I don’t know and so am suggesting you look into it because a TPD discharge is a fairly quick process and, if approved, would be entered right away and then become final after 3 years (assuming no issues during the 3-year review period). Consolidation/IBR is a good option, especially for borrowers who don’t qualify for TPD, but the loan forgiveness does not take effect for 25 years (although there may be $0 owed during that time if the borrower’s income level qualifies).
I would like you to consider pursuing your administrative options instead of continuing with your lawsuit. Again, I cannot advise you on what to do or not do. However, I believe that your resources would be better spent on pursuing administrative relief through either consolidation/IBR or TPD rather than on litigation. Therefore, I propose that you dismiss your adversary proceeding without prejudice (which means that you could refile the lawsuit should you so choose later) and pursue administrative relief. Should you choose to do this, I would be happy to remain a point of contact on behalf of Education, so as to facilitate Education’s review of your application(s), although please note that I do not make administrative decisions for Education.
Regards,
I am plaintiff pro se in adversary proceeding to discharge student loans under 523a8b undue hardship.
Defendants attorney sent me this email.
I would like to know if you think he is giving me legal advice.
He tells me to participate in the IBR/consolidation or TPD discharge and dismiss my case. He says if I need to I can later open it back up, dismiss without prejudice.
I had filed a consolidation application and he asked me to send it to him to expedite. I was thinking of cancelling the consolidation due to all I heard about Nelnet. But after getting the attorney's "advice" I decided not to and consolidation was best thing.
He keeps saying he cant advise me, but in my opinion that is what he is doing!! He is telling me what to do. Your opinions are appreciated.
Do you think this is self serving and only for his needs? I feel misled. Now my case will be closed. I have a strong case to discharge and feel I would have won.
I pursued administrative relief and now I dont have the option to file a law suit later! I am so upset by this!
"
I will look into the status of your consolidation application. From what you sent me, it appears that you submitted the application to Nelnet, rather than sending it to me so I could send it on for expedited review, as I had suggested you do. I will check with my contact at Education, but you may need to check with Nelnet since you submitted the application to them. In any event, I will let you know what I hear from Education.
In response to your other questions, I can only point you to the information that is available to you online, including at this website: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/repay-loans/deferment-forbearance. I cannot give you legal advice or tell you what you should do with your student loan debt, or otherwise act as your advocate, because I represent Education as a defendant in the lawsuit you brought against them.
However, I again want to make you aware of your consolidation/IBR option and, especially, your TPD option, in part because those options may give you much of the relief you seeking in your complaint and may save us all, including the court, the time and effort required by litigation. To that end, I have attached the TPD application, which includes at Section 4 the required physician’s certification. I understand you are having difficulty having a doctor complete the certification. Do you know if Dr. R worked with a psychiatrist or another medical doctor (MD or DO) in rendering her March 15, 2015 evaluation? If she did, she may fill out the certification, sign it and have the psychiatrist or medical doctor co-sign it at the bottom saying they endorse the diagnosis and prognosis. Maybe this is something you’ve already looked in, but I don’t know and so am suggesting you look into it because a TPD discharge is a fairly quick process and, if approved, would be entered right away and then become final after 3 years (assuming no issues during the 3-year review period). Consolidation/IBR is a good option, especially for borrowers who don’t qualify for TPD, but the loan forgiveness does not take effect for 25 years (although there may be $0 owed during that time if the borrower’s income level qualifies).
I would like you to consider pursuing your administrative options instead of continuing with your lawsuit. Again, I cannot advise you on what to do or not do. However, I believe that your resources would be better spent on pursuing administrative relief through either consolidation/IBR or TPD rather than on litigation. Therefore, I propose that you dismiss your adversary proceeding without prejudice (which means that you could refile the lawsuit should you so choose later) and pursue administrative relief. Should you choose to do this, I would be happy to remain a point of contact on behalf of Education, so as to facilitate Education’s review of your application(s), although please note that I do not make administrative decisions for Education.
Regards,
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