Our two attorneys, Christie Arkovich and Barbara Leon, help to reduce student loan debt, file bankruptcy, avoid garnishment and foreclosure and other problems that too much debt can create.
Barbara Leon is a Florida licensed attorney for nearly 20 years in the areas of bankruptcy, foreclosure and student loans. Her practice and experience is well diversified, having gained experience through an internship with the U.S. Attorneyโs office, a clerkship with a Federal Magistrate Judge, and both creditor and debtor private practice. This insight helps her to see all sides and find a solution quickly that works for everyone.
As founder of the firm, Christie Arkovich has practiced law for over 25 years. She is a frequent speaker at various consumer-oriented continuing legal education seminars for other attorneys before the Florida Bar, the American Bankruptcy Institute, the National Association of Consumer Advocates and the Tampa Bay Bankruptcy Bar Association. The firm maintains an AV Preeminent rating and enjoys excellent client reviews and we welcome you to see what we can do for you!
Our channel Student Loan Sidebar is a continuation of a quarterly column that we write for our local bankruptcy attorney bar organization helping people get a handle on their student loan debt. Whenever possible, Christie shares her knowledge about student loans gained working as former trial counsel for Sallie Mae, ECMC, and other student loan servicers or guarantors, and her current law practice of over 25 years.
Weโre a nationally known law firm who has helped thousands of student loan borrowers obtain a sustainable, affordable payment with an end in sight. Please sit back, check out our awesome client reviews, watch a few videos and see if we can help you!
Now for the All-Important Disclaimer and where to go for more information. The information in our videos does not and is not intended to constitute legal advice. Instead, all information and content are for general informational purposes โ and may not be the most up to date. Please contact us for a strategy session where we review your particular loans and how best to position yourself to create the life you want with as little debt as possible.
Hello, my name is Christy Arkovich. I am the founder of Arkovich Law located in Tampa, Florida.
We do a lot of student loan work, bankruptcy work, and things like that. If you have found these
videos helpful, please subscribe. We track that information and it really helps us understand
which videos are most sought after and if, in fact, this free assistance is helping folks out
there. If you have specific questions regarding your loans, it's best to do a strategy session
with us or with someone so that we can look exactly at what you have and see what course
of action is best for you. You usually have so much at stake. So much money is wrapped up in
these student loans that I really would like you to reach out to someone. But hopefully this free
information will be helpful to you to understand what options might be available for you. So,
if you have public service, I mean, if you're seeking public service loan forgiveness,
the SAVE program is only one of the income-driven plans that you can be under to complete your 120
months. Fortunately, the SAVE program offers the lowest possible payment generally because of the
way it's calculated. But if you expect forgiveness to occur in the next few months and you now
understand from the Missouri and Kansas decisions of a few days ago that there is an injunction in
place that will prevent any forgiveness while that litigation is pending, and it will take a
few months, usually the US Supreme Court, I mean, we may expect a ruling on this next spring or so.
But essentially, if you expect to have forgiveness between now and then, you can stay in SAVE and
you can wait and see what happens. Alternatively, you could complete your SAVE payments using the
lowest possible calculations, but that when you've reached 120, you could go ahead and go into a
different payment plan. There are other IBR options available to you. IBR is one of those
possibilities. And if you were to basically change out of SAVE and go into IBR, and then if you think
you've already completed your 120 months, the discharge application, the public service loan
discharge application, will actually ask you that question. In the first page, it will ask,
have you already completed your 120? If so, you can ask for forbearance while they consider that.
The reason I'm suggesting this is because then you can obtain forgiveness now, as opposed to
have to go through the uncertainty of what will happen under the SAVE legislation. Additionally,
you may find that, well, first of all, the public service loan forgiveness is not a program that's
under challenge of any kind. There's no discussion about revoking any of the procedures under that.
And so that's all good. Sorry, I had to take a pause. I had to sneeze. One of the requirements
of public service is that you are working at the agency, the nonprofit or government agency,
while your application is being reviewed and approved. That might take six months. And so
if you have a job in the wings or something that you want to do, and this forgiveness is stalled
during that time, you have to understand that that period of time that you need to work for
that public agency is also stalled. And that's one of the advantages of maybe switching out to
a different payment plan to get the forgiveness because you no longer have to work for that
government agency longer than necessary while this litigation is pending. So please keep that in mind.
And again, please subscribe to these videos, reach out to us if you need assistance,
and I hope this has been helpful for you. Have a great day. Thank you.
