Sure, we all b*tch and moan about the toll that student loans take on our lives — whether it’s staying at soul-crushing firm jobs, dead-end document review work, delayed trips, or expenditures. Unless you are a member of the 1% (or one of those mythological creatures on a full scholarship), going to law school means wrestling — for many years — with the burden of educational debt.
From the Connecticut Law Tribune comes a tale of an attorney who tried to game the system. Spoiler alert: he fails.
Gregory P. Cohan went to the University of Bridgeport Law School—now the Quinnipiac School of Law—and got his Connecticut bar license in 1993. But he hasn’t made a payment on his law school loans since 2001. A few years before that, he consolidated his federal law school loans under the William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program, which ties monthly repayment amounts to an individual’s income. After 25 years, any balance left on loans is forgiven.
According to Cohan’s calculations, his payment should have been about $100 a month. But the government puts the number at $300.
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As a lawyer, Cohan probably thinks he can negotiate away the $200 a month difference — but when the full force of the federal government of the United States of America comes at ya, well you’d best pay the $300 a month.
There’s also the small matter of Cohan not even paying the $100 a month he claims he owes since 2001.
Lest you think there aren’t punitive clauses in student loan contracts, well, the repercussions for Cohan’s actions are severe.
When Cohan consolidated his loans in August 1999, he owed $97,658.55. Now he has been ordered to pay $236,535. That’s because while the case has been pending, the unpaid principal balance has been accruing at 8.25 percent every year.
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So more than two decades into his legal career, Cohan still has $230k+ to pay on his student loans. Retirement really is more elusive than ever.
Federal Judge Orders Conn. Lawyer to Pay $236,000 Law School Debt [Connecticut Law Tribune]