INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Student loan debt in the United States totals $1.5 trillion, and more than 44 million Americans have outstanding student loan
debt.According to research by Villanova law professor Jason Iuliano, a million student loan debtors have filed for bankruptcy in the past
However, 99.9% of them did not include their student loan debt in their bankruptcy filing.This research was the seed of what would become
Reset Button, a new startup founded by Iuliano and Rob Hunter looking to help student loan debtors who have gone through bankruptcy find a
new way to include those debts in their filing.The only way you can include student loan debt in a bankruptcy filing is through litigation
Those cases have been historically less likely to settle out of court than other types of civil cases.This means that the cost of including
student loan debt in bankruptcy filings is, at the very least, around $10,000
lawyers who have experience in seeking student loan discharges
When a new user fires up Reset Button, the startup sends them through an evaluation process that collects financial information, etc
does a lot of the heavy lifting that makes hiring a litigator so expensive
These lawyers often have to do tons of research, tracking down statements and bills and other paperwork, before they can truly get started
with the litigation.Reset Button, as the connective tissue between debtor and lawyer, is able to automate a lot of that process for the
lawyers, delivering a package of information on the case and connecting the user with the right lawyer for them.Reset is also looking to
bring down the cost for debtors
The company charges either 12% of the total debt discharged, or $10,000 (whichever is lowest)
Reset also allows users to pay that sum over time, in $300 monthly installments
This is in stark contrast to people who hire their own lawyer, who would be responsible for the costs upfront.Reset Button is able to do
this through a payment process called factoring
Reset makes money from lawyers who pay for the lead generation, the technology services and the marketing apparatus.Factoring has come under
fire from some who say that service providers sometimes raise prices to account for their fee, but Reset Button co-founders Hunter and
Iuliano say their lawyers are actually charging less because of the workflow optimization provided by Reset Button.The company also provides
a Knowledge Base for debtors seeking financial guidance and resources, but the only revenue stream comes from the actual litigation of
student loan debt in bankruptcy filings
Other services like refinancing, debt consolidation or income-based payments are not provided by Reset Button, and the company has no
official partnerships with those types of service providers.However, Hunter said that it may be an avenue the company explores as it
grows.Perhaps most importantly, Reset Button offers a Fresh Start guarantee
currently pay back the loan, that there will not be a change down the line that will allow them to pay the loan in the future and that they
take steps to litigate their student loan debt
Murphy and the DOE/ECMC, Rao wrote to the courts arguing that they should reassess the test for undue hardship:Rather than adopt one
existing test over another, we urge this Court to provide a formulation of the undue hardship standard in simple terms, that restricts
consideration of extraneous and inappropriate factors not consistent with the statutory language
optimism.More recently, a judge in the Southern District of New York ruled in favor of a debtor, wiping more than $200,000 in Kevin
of Lambda School, among others
