A judge in bankruptcy court has ruled in favor of a law school graduate who asked to have more than $220,000 in student debt erased.

The case is notable because student debt is commonly thought to be unforgivable in bankruptcy cases, a lament of many students who leave college saying they are too financially burdened to advance the milestones of adulthood, like buying property or having children.

Students Drowning in ‘Insane’ Debt Delay Life Goals

Mentioning the words “student debt” to millennials and younger people is like dropping a match on a trail of gasoline.”Our total debt for credit cards and student loans combined is almost $150,000,” said Matt Porter, 31, who lives in Lowell, Massachusetts, with his fiancee.

But borrower Kevin J. Rosenberg, 46, of Beacon, N.Y., asked the court to forgive his student debt because repaying the loans was impossible and created an undue hardship, the legal test of whether a debtor should be forgiven.

Rosenberg’s student debt journey started in 1993, when he enrolled as an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, according to court documents. After receiving a bachelor’s degree in history, he served in the U.S. Navy on active duty for five years. 

He then attended Cardozo School of Law at Yeshiva University in New York from 2001 to 2004. His degrees were financed by student loans. 

When he graduated from law school in April 2005, he consolidated his debts with a nonprofit corporation called Educational Credit Management Corp., (ECMC), owing $116,464 in principle on the loan amount before interest. But by November 19, 2019, the 3.38% interest rate expanded that loan debt to $221,385.

Rosenberg is among a small percentage of student debtors – 2% — who owe most of the nation’s $1.7 trillion student debt. This group borrowed money to pay for expensive graduate school programs, like law and medicine.

Third of Student Debt Owned by Only 6% of Borrowers

In a look at the $1.5 trillion of debt owed by students, those at for-profit universities continue to carry most debt, according to Brookings Institution report

The average loan debt for law school graduates in 2012 was between $84,600 and $122,158, according to the American Bar Association. Almost 70% of law school graduates in 2016 left with student debt, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

ECMC — a nonprofit organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota — argued that Rosenberg did not meet the undue hardship standard. They cited his age (45), health, lack of dependents, two degrees, and law licenses in New York and New Jersey in their legal brief.“

Shortly after starting his first job as an associate attorney at a law firm, [Rosenberg] decided that practicing law was not for him, because he disliked working in an office and did not find the work interesting,” New Jersey attorney Kenneth Baum, who represented ECMC, wrote in his court brief. 

“Thus, after leaving that job after only 2½ months, [Rosenberg], with the exception of a brief period of working as a part-time contract attorney on a project basis – which [he] likened to working as a paralegal – has not sought any employment in the legal profession and has no intention of ever doing so, despite the fact that opportunities abound for Plaintiff to make a very respectable living in the legal profession,” Baum wrote.

Rosenberg did not return calls or email to VOA, but was quoted in Yahoo Finance on January 12, saying, “First of all, I realized the whole job is sitting in the office by yourself. You can’t be creative at all, but also that you either help people out or you make a good living — you can’t do both. And I kind of had a problem with that.” 

Judge Cecelia G. Morris, chief U.S. Bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of New York, agreed with Rosenberg. She used the student-debt test case, Brunner v N.Y. State Higher Education Services Corp., from 1987 differently than other decisions. “

Brunner has received a lot of criticism for creating too high of a burden for most bankruptcy petitioners to meet,” Morris wrote. For Brunner, who filed for bankruptcy within a year of graduation, “the test is difficult to meet,” she wrote. “

However, for a multitude of petitioners like Mr. Rosenberg, who have been out of school and struggling with student loan debt for many years, the test itself is fairly straightforward and simple,” she said.

Rosenberg was relieved of his debt.

Student-loan experts say that most students are under the impression that student debt cannot be relieved in bankruptcy court. Some get bad advice from attorneys who also believe student debt cannot be forgiven in bankruptcy court. “

You can’t discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy: That was the prevailing wisdom,” said Jason Iuliano, an expert in student debt and assistant professor of law at Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia.

But Iuliano, whose own student debt was hundreds of thousands of dollars after receiving degrees from Harvard University and Princeton University, dove into the caseload and found that wasn’t true. “

What I found when I actually went in and collected the cases was a lot of folks actually do meet the [undue hardship] test,” he said. “About 40% of the student loan debtors in bankruptcy … are successful in getting a discharge of some sort. And that struck me as really important.”

Iuliano said about 250,000 student debtors file for bankruptcy each year. But only about 500 of them take a necessary additional legal action to address college-loan specific debt. Only 1% end up going in front of a judge. 

“A lot more people should be filing and trying to prove undue hardship, because they would be successful if they actually came before a judge,” Iuliano advised.

Ashley Harrington, senior policy counsel for the Center for Responsible Lending, celebrated the decision, but said student debt that impacts low-income and minority borrowers more than any others should be addressed long before debtors end up with interest-bloated loans. 

“My initial thought was, ‘This is great, good for him.’ We’ve always supported student-loan disposal of both state and federal loans,” Harrington said. “But, there still is a need for Congress to do something about it.”

Among students in the Class of 2016, 70% borrowed an average of $30,000, Harrington said.

“People are really struggling under this debt for a very long time. Your payment return is 20 to 25 years, and that’s as long as some people’s mortgages,” she said.

“Part of the conversation is changing in judicial chambers because everyone is realizing what a crisis this is, seeing how it effects students’ lives,” Harrington added. “How much help have you given them?”

Rosenberg’s case and Judge Morris’ decision have ramped up that conversation, Iuliano said. 

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A legal adviser at the European Union’s highest court said Wednesday that the bloc’s data protection rules should prevent member states from indiscriminately holding personal data seized from Internet and phone companies, even when intelligence agencies claim that national security is at stake.

In a non-binding opinion on how the European Court of Justice, or ECJ, should rule on issues relating to access by security and intelligence agencies to communications data retained by telecommunications providers, advocate general Campos Sanchez-Bordona said “the means and methods of combating terrorism must be compatible with the requirements of the rule of law.”

Commenting on a series of cases from France, the U.K. and Belgium — three countries that have been hit by extremist attacks in recent years and have reinforced surveillance — Sanchez-Bordona said that the ECJ’s case law should be upheld. He cited a case in which the court ruled that general and indiscriminate retention of communications “is disproportionate” and inconsistent with EU privacy directives.

The advocate general recommended limited access to the data, and only when it is essential “for the effective prevention and control of crime and the safeguarding of national security.”

The initial case was brought by Privacy International, a charity promoting the right to privacy. Referring to the ECJ’s case law, it said that the acquisition, use, retention, disclosure, storage and deletion of bulk personal data sets and bulk communications data by the U.K. security and intelligence agencies were unlawful under EU law.

The U.K.’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal referred the case to the ECJ, which held a joint hearing with two similar cases from France and another one from Belgium.

“We welcome today’s opinion from the advocate general and hope it will be persuasive to the Court,” said Caroline Wilson Palow, the Legal Director of Privacy International. “The opinion is a win for privacy. We all benefit when robust rights schemes, like the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, are applied and followed.”

The ECJ’s legal opinions aren’t legally binding, but are often followed by the court. The ECJ press service said a ruling is expected within two months.

“Should the court decide to follow the opinion of the advocate general, ‘metadata’ such as traffic and location data will remain subject to a high level of protection in the European Union, even when they are accessed for national security purposes,” said Luca Tosoni, a researcher at the Norwegian Research Center for Computers and Law. “This would require several member states — including Belgium, France, the U.K. and others — to amend their domestic legislation.”
 

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Armed security forces and civilian motorcycle groups loyal to Venezuela’s president forcefully blocked opposition lawmakers from entering the National Assembly building to hold a session on Wednesday.

It’s the second time this month that lawmakers have been barred from from the building that houses the only branch of government out of control of President Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government.

Attempting to reach the legislative chamber, t he caravan of cars carrying the deputies dodged through downtown streets, but ultimately failed.

Gunshots could heard near the cars, but no injuries were reported. Two SUV’s carrying the lawmakers came under attack by people on the street dressed in civilian clothes. They struck the rear window of one, shattering it.

“The dictatorship is intent on militarily kidnapping the Federal Legislative Palace and using repressive instruments and paramilitary groups,” Guaidó said on Twitter, accusing Maduro’s government of following a “clumsy and erroneous path.”

He said that the lawmakers had decided to hold the session at another location in the Caracas suburb of El Hatillo.

The incident was part of a struggle for control of the opposition-controlled National Assembly and Venezuela as a whole, a nation suffering economic and social collapse that’s led estimated 4.5 million to emigrate.

A once oil-wealthy nation, Venezuela has been locked in a political, economic and social collapse for the last five years. Basic medicines, food and gasoline are scarce, despite the fact Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves.

The 36-year-old Guaidó leaped onto Venezuela’s political stage a year ago when he declared himself acting president under the constitution and vowed to to end Maduro’s rule. The United States and more than 50 other nations quickly backed him, saying Maduro’s reelection in 2018 was illegitimate.

Guaidó was also blocked from the the National Assembly building early this month in a failed government attempt to prevent him from being reelected as the body’s leader.

It’s unclear where Guaidó was during the attempted entry to the National Assembly building on Wednesday.

Opposition lawmaker Delsa Solórzano said she was riding in a car with at least three other lawmakers that came under attack near the legislative building with rocks and sticks. She also reported hearing gunfire.

“Evidently tried to kill us,” Solórzano said. “Today, our parliament is practically kidnapped.”

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Days of angry protests in Iran over the military’s accidental downing of a Ukrainian airliner appear to signal a deeper discontent with the government.  The demonstrations began after the Iranian government acknowledged it shot down the aircraft killing all 176 passengers on board, most of them Iranian. The incident appears to have redirected public anger away from America’s targeted killing of a top Iranian general and more toward Iran’s leadership — and their political repression as the country’s economy struggles under U.S. sanctions. VOA’s Brian Padden has more on whether the protests signal the beginning of a popular revolt.
 

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The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights expressed alarm Tuesday at the “staggering number” of social activists killed in Colombia despite a peace accord aimed at improving conditions in poor, rural areas.

According to the U.N., 107 human rights defenders were killed in 2019, a worrying number that could grow to 120 as investigations are completed. At least 10 activists have been reported killed in the first two weeks of 2020.

“This vicious and endemic cycle of violence and impunity must stop,” said Marta Hurtado, spokesperson for the high commissioner.

The vast majority of the deaths happened in rural areas with higher-than-average rates of poverty and where illegal armed groups operate. Some of these areas were previously controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, the rebel group that signed an historic peace accord in 2016.

The U.N. pointed to challenges in implementing the accord, the presence of illegal armed groups in territory once controlled by the leftist rebels and the government’s military-focused response as all being partly to blame.

The landmark agreement ending over five decades of conflict includes lengthy chapters outlining ways for the government to establish a presence in remote regions where the illicit drug trade flourishes. While some advances including the building of new roads and efforts at crop substitution have taken place, those parts of the accord are proving to be the most difficult and long-term to bring into action.

“We acknowledge some positive steps,” Hurtado said, pointing to a recent security meeting. “However, the number of killings clearly shows much more needs to be done.”

The numbers

More than half the killings took place in four provinces — Antioquia, Arauca, Cauca and Caqueta — and people advocating on behalf of specific community, ethnic, indigenous and Afro-Colombian groups were the most targeted.

The killings of female activists increased by almost 50 percent between 2018 and 2019. The U.N. did not provide a specific number.

The total number killed in 2019 is about the same or possibly a bit higher than the previous year, when 115 were killed.

The U.N. is calling on the government of President Ivan Duque to redouble efforts to ensure a secure environment for civic engagement, increase the presence of state authorities and expand access to health and education.

Duque won the presidency in 2018 on a platform that was critical of the peace deal, though he has not managed to reform any key components.

The Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, which is charged with monitoring implementation of the accord, published a study last April finding that work had begun on more than two-thirds of the agreement’s commitments.

The study found progress at the two-year mark comparable to other peace processes around the world that the institute has studied.

‘Profoundly worrying’ developments 

Special Representative Carlos Ruiz, who heads the U.N. Verification Mission in Colombia, told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that “significant strides” have been made but noted that continuing violence in conflict-affected regions remains a threat to peace.

He pointed to “profoundly worrying” developments in recent weeks including territorial disputes between illegal armed groups that risk spreading into more widespread violence in areas like the province of Choco.

Ruiz also highlighted the recent death of Lucy Villarreal, an activist killed just after completing a children’s workshop in the port city of Tumaco, where violence involving dissident rebels has flared in the peace deal’s aftermath.

He said full implementation of the peace agreement holds the best hope for Colombia’s future.

“Peace will not be fully achieved if the brave voices of social leaders continue to be silenced through violence and if former combatants who laid down their weapons and are committed to their reintegration continue to be killed,” he said.
 

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Authorities in Ivory Coast say they rescued 137 children who were the victims of traffickers and groomed to work on cocoa plantations or in prostitution.

Police rescued the children after surrounding the eastern town of Aboisso and carried out a two-day search of cars, farms, and nearby villages.

Officials say the children ranged from age six to 17 and were brought into Ivory Coast from Benin, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria, and Togo. The victims are in care of a charity in Aboisso while authorities search for their parents.

Senior police officials say they plan to increase operations aimed at stopping child trafficking.

“Ivory Coast’s image is tarnished by child trafficking. We are appealing to all parents: a child’s place is at school and not on plantations,” Aboisso’s deputy police chief Kouadio Yeboue Marcellin says.

Ivory Coast is dependent on the cocoa and cashew crops and poor farmers depend on child labor to pick the beans and nuts.

Western chocolate companies, including some of the biggest such as Nestle and Hershey, have pledged to stop buying beans produced by child workers. Critics say such efforts have been only modestly successful. 

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Iranian police have denied using live ammunition against protesters in Tehran, who have been demonstrating since Saturday against the government’s attempt to cover up its downing of a Ukrainian passenger plane.  Protesters in Tehran and other Iranian cities are demanding accountability for the deaths of 82 Iranian citizens who were among 176 people killed in the plane crash. The Trump administration has called on the Iranian authorities to refrain from using force against the protesters. VOA’s Zlatica Hoke reports.

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Since Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979 and took 52 American diplomats and citizens hostage for 444 days, relations with the U.S. and Iran have been volatile.  Tensions escalated recently after the the U.S. conducted a targeted killing of a top Iranian commander in Iraq. The incident has increased anxiety among many Iranian Americans in the U.S. who already felt vulnerable. VOA’s Julie Taboh talked with a few of them and has this report.

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Russia says good progress has been made in talks in Moscow over a ceasefire in Libya – but a breakthrough deal has yet to be signed between the rival forces. Russia, which supports strongman Khalifa Haftar in the east of the country, helped broker a ceasefire alongside Turkey, which plans to deploy troops to defend Haftar’s rival, the United Nations-backed Government of National Accord based in Tripoli. As Henry Ridgwell reports, more and more foreign powers are getting involved in the conflict – and while hopes have been raised of a longer-term peace deal, there is also a danger the intervention could backfire.

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Who will be celebrating Oscar morning? Brad Pitt for sure. Jennifer Lopez almost certainly. And very possibly the Obamas, too.

Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards, which will begin at 8:18 a.m. EST Monday, should bring plenty of star power to the Feb. 9 ceremony – a good thing, too, since the show will for the second straight year  go without a host.

Thankfully, this Oscar year isn’t lacking for drama. Netflix is gunning for its first best picture win, a year after Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” fell just short. It has not just one but at least two contenders led by Martin Scorsese’s elegiac crime epic “The Irishman” and Noah Baumbach’s intimate divorce drama “Marriage Story.”

But in the lead up to Monday’s nominations, much of the momentum has gone to  a pair of movies that exalt the big screen with showmanship and celebrity: Quentin Tarantino’s “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,” with Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, and Sam Mendes’ continuous World War I thrill ride, “1917.” Hollywood, in the midst of a streaming upheaval, has so far favored the traditionally released movies.

Still, no definite front-runner has emerged, and nominations morning could tip the scales anew in a rapid-paced awards season that, while not lacking for the usual battery of parties, screenings and Q&As, is more condensed than usual.

The nominations, to be read by Issa Rae and John Cho, will be live streamed on Oscar.com, Oscars.org and the academy’s digital social platforms. The second wave of nominees will begin at 8:30 a.m. EST and be carried live on “Good Morning America.”

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences select anywhere from five to 10 nominees for best picture, depending on how many first-placed votes a film gets. That’s usually meant eight or nine movies. This year, the precursor guild nominations  have suggested the sure things are “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood,”  “1917,” “The Irishman,” Taika Waititi’s “JoJo Rabbit” and Bong Joon Ho’s “Parasite.”

That leaves a few slots to be battled out by “Joker,” “Little Women,” “Ford v Ferrari,” “Knives Out,” “Bombshell” and “The Farewell.”

“Parasite” will be the first Korean film ever nominated for an Oscar but it’s likely to land several nominations, including Bong for best director and possibly Song Kang Ho for best supporting actor.

The director category will be especially closely watched. Though Greta Gerwig (“Little Women”) is a possibility, the academy is expected to nominate an all-male field despite a year in which women made significant gains behind the camera.  The academy has nominated only men for best director in all but five years; Gerwig was the last woman nominated, two years ago.

In the acting categories, Renee Zellweger (“Judy”) has consistently led the best actress contenders. Should Awkwafina be nominated, she would be only the second woman of Asian descent nominated in the category. (The first, 1936 nominee Merle Oberon, hid her South Asian heritage.)

Pitt has a lock on the supporting actor Oscar, which would be his first ever. Laura Dern (“Marriage Story”) and Lopez have led the supporting actress nominees. A nomination would be the first for Lopez.

The best actor category, after a few lackluster years, has been especially competitive, with Joaquin Phoenix (“Joker”) and Adam Driver (“Marriage Story”) as the most entrenched nominees in a field including DiCaprio, Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”), Christian Bale (“Ford v Ferrari”), Eddie Murphy (“Dolemite Is My Name”), Adam Sandler (“Uncut Gems”) and Robert De Niro (“The Irishman”).

While a similar result Monday is unlikely, the British Film Academy last week nominated an all-white field of acting nominees. Widely criticized, the BAFTAs pledged to review its awards process.

Beyonce will likely add an Oscar nomination to her many honors, for her “Lion King” song. “American Factory,” the first release from Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, is likely to be among the documentary nominees.

After the most dominant box-office year in Hollywood history, the Walt Disney Co. will have reasons to celebrate Monday, though their top films – including the record-setting Marvel blockbuster “Avengers: Endgame” – are expected to be largely relegated to categories like best visual effects. The studio, which has never won a best picture Academy Award, does have a few contenders via its acquisition in April of 20th Century Fox. Both “Ford v Ferrari” and “Jojo Rabbit” (released by specialty label Fox Searchlight) will compete in the top categories.

The 92nd Academy Awards will take place Feb. 9 in Los Angeles at the Dolby Theatre. ABC will again broadcast the show, viewership for which last year rose 12% to 29.6 million.    

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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II is set to hold face-to-face talks Monday with Prince Harry for the first time since he and his wife, Meghan, unveiled their controversial plan to walk away from royal roles, holding  a dramatic family summit meant to chart a future course for the couple.
    
The meeting reflects the queen’s desire to contain the fallout from Harry and Meghan’s decision to “step back” as senior royals, work to become financially independent and split their time between Britain and North America. The couple, also known as the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, made the announcement Wednesday without telling the queen or other senior royals first.
    
Before the extraordinary session, Princes William and Harry took the equally unusual step of issuing a statement challenging the accuracy of a newspaper report that there was a severe strain on the relationship between the two brothers.
    
“For brothers who care so deeply about the issues surrounding mental health, the use of inflammatory language in this way is offensive and potentially harmful,” the statement said.
    
The meeting at the monarch’s private Sandringham estate in eastern England will also include Harry’s father Prince Charles and his brother Prince William. It comes after days of intense news coverage, in which supporters of the royal family’s feuding factions used the British media to paint conflicting pictures of who was to blame for the rift.
    
William is expected to travel to Sandringham from London and Harry from his home in Windsor, west of the British capital. Charles has flown  back from the Gulf nation of Oman, where he attended a condolence ceremony Sunday following the death of Sultan Qaboos bin Said.
    
Meghan, who is in Canada with the couple’s baby son Archie, is likely to join the meeting by phone.
    
Buckingham Palace said “a range of possibilities” would be discussed, but the queen was determined to resolve the situation within “days, not weeks.” The goal was to agree on next steps at Monday’s gathering, which follows days of talks among royal courtiers and officials from the U.K. and Canada. Buckingham Palace stressed, however, that “any decision will take time to be implemented.”
    
One of the more fraught questions that needs to be worked out is precisely what it means for a royal to be financially independent and what activities can be undertaken to make money. Other royals who have ventured into the world of commerce have found it complicated.
    
Prince Andrew, for example, has faced heated questions about his relationship with the late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein. Andrew, the queen’s second son, has relinquished royal duties and patronages after being accused by a woman who says she was an Epstein trafficking victim who slept with the prince.
    
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex also face questions on paying for taxpayer-funded security. Home Secretary Priti Patel refused to comment, but said safety was a priority.
    
“I’m not going to provide any detailed information on the security arrangements for either them or any members of the royal family or for any protected individuals, that’s thoroughly inappropriate for me to do so” she told the BBC. “At this moment in time, right now, the royal family themselves need some time and space for them to work through the current issues that they’re dealing with.”
    
The meeting comes amid days of days of discussions about the future of the monarchy following the surprise announcement. Senior royals were said to be hurt, Harry and Meghan’s friends have told Britain’s media that the couple were being pushed aside because of the desire of the Windsors to concentrate on the core of the royal family and focus on those in the line of succession – Prince Charles, William and William’s son George.
    
Tom Bradby, a TV journalist who is close to Harry and Meghan, warned in the Sunday Times that the royal family badly needed a peace deal to prevent “a protracted war” that could damage the monarchy.
    
With much at stake, the talks could be a step toward a changed monarchy.
   
“This is a seismic moment in royal history and British society,” Kate Williams, a historian at the University of Reading, wrote in the Observer. “It tells historians of the future much about our society, its self-perceptions, prejudices and fears. And most of all, it should mark our realization as we didn’t learn after (Princess) Diana that those who marry into the royal family are not our dolls to attack and throw around as we please.”

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