Posted by Vanessa Van Bodegon.
As a college student myself, student debt is something that haunts me in my sleep. The constant worry in the back of my head leaves me wondering if I will make enough money post-graduation to pay my debt in a sufficient period of time.
After reading an article in the ABA Journal titled, “Federal judge tosses decision erasing law grad’s student debt, says issues should be decided at trial”, by Debra Cassens Weiss, I see that Kevin Rosenberg, must not have had this worry. Rosenberg was a law student who graduated from Yeshiva University in 2004. Upon completion of law school, he began to work in a firm for less than three months, before getting fired and becoming practically jobless, apart from working jobs here and there.
Because of his poor financial decisions and the economic recession in 2008, Rosenberg’s debt continued to increase, and he made no effort to pay it off. Instead of lowering his cost of living to pay off his debt, he decided to move to places with higher rent. At a point, his debt increased from its original $116,465 to an astonishing $220,000, with only $3,000 paid off.
Rosenberg decided to take his issue to court, where the judge overturned the decision because Rosenberg did not provide enough evidence to prove that his debt is unpayable. The judge felt that Rosenberg put himself in his predicament, and that is nobody’s problem other than his own… which I would have to agree with. The judge stated that Rosenberg had not submitted enough evidence to satisfy the Brunner test, which is a three-part test that, “considers whether the debtor can maintain a minimal standard of living if forced to repay the loans, whether an inability to maintain the minimal standard is likely to persist for a significant portion of the repayment period, and whether the debtor had made a good faith effort to repay the loans” (Weiss par 8).
Although Rosenberg did have setbacks, such as injuries that required surgeries and the economic recession, his piled-up debt is the result of his own poor decisions. As stated previously, I can only hope I do not make the same mistakes a Rosenberg when trying to pay my own student debt in the future.
Vanessa is a finance major at Seton Hall University, class of 2024.