Undue Hardship

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.23.15

* Will it ever be easier to meet the challenge of proving you've got an undue hardship so you can discharge your law school student loan debts in bankruptcy? Your fate may rest in the hands of this indebted Florida Coastal Law grad and his petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court. [US Law Week Blog / Bloomberg] * Hate crimes still happen, even at this prestigious law school: Amid increased racial turbulence on campus, the Harvard University Police Department is now investigating the defacing of black law professors' portraits as a hate crime. [ABC News] * UVA Law recently joined the minority of law schools that have women serving as dean. Pop your collars with pride, because legal historian Risa Goluboff will take over as the school's first female dean this July. Congratulations! [Richmond Times-Dispatch] * Gordon Rees has settled its lawsuit against Alex Rodriguez over the baseball player's outstanding legal bills, totaling more than $380,000. The terms of the deal haven't been disclosed, but we have a feeling that the firm hit it out of the park. [NBC New York] * Try before you buy or a bid to increase tourism? Alaska is making bold moves now that it's legalized marijuana for recreational use. It'll be the first state to allow the social use of the drug "in public," i.e., inside pot dispensaries that have yet to open. [Cannabist]

By Staci Zaretsky
Bankruptcy

Morning Docket: 08.13.12

* In case you’ve been sleeping under a rock, Mitt Romney picked Rep. Paul Ryan as his Vice Presidential running mate. Putting politics aside, this is a great pick, if only because Ryan is so handsome. Seriously, he’s a total stud. [Wall Street Journal] * “How can I be the one guy with a good degree who is going to be chronically unemployed?” Sadly, many lawyers are still looking for jobs after (multiple) layoffs, but thanks to a lack of positions, employment is just “not in the cards” for them. [New York Times] * Deadliest clerkship? The Washington, D.C. judge who presided over one of the most violent mass shooting cases in the nation’s capital was reportedly held up at gunpoint last week, with her law clerk in tow. [Fox DC] * Something is rotten in the state of Denmark Texas. Judge Sam Sparks “know[s] the smell of bad fish,” and now wants to know why the USADA waited so long to bring charges against Lance Armstrong. [Bloomberg] * After reversing a bankruptcy court’s decision that loan repayment would be an “undue hardship” for a law-school debtor, a judge took the time to rip law schools a new one over escalating tuition. [Oregonian] * Match.com class-action plaintiffs found no love in court after a federal judge ruled that the dating website hadn’t breached its user agreement. Much like their love lives, their claims aren’t getting any action. [Reuters] * A man who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client: 23% of all cases filed in the federal court for the S.D.N.Y. are brought by pro-se litigants, and the vast majority of them seem to have lost their minds. [New York Post]

By Staci Zaretsky
Bankruptcy

Not Even Bankruptcy Will Make Your Student Loans Go Away

More and more law school graduates are trying to seek bankruptcy protection from their mountains of student loan debt. Now, we know that reading comprehension is tested on the LSAT, but apparently, once students complete the law school entrance exam, that skill goes right out the window. How do we know? Because law school graduates, who freely signed up for student loans as law students, are now trying to shirk their repayment responsibilities....

By Staci Zaretsky