Alejandro Calderon, Author at Noto Law School

Student Loan Justice Info

February 20, 2011 Alejandro Calderon General, Law School

For those of you who have not visited the site Student Loan Justice, please take a moment and do so. There has been a lot of interest lately in defaulting, and you should know how the loan companies and Uncle Sam can screw you before you do so. This is from Student Loan Justice:

Congress removed bankruptcy protections, refinancing rights, statutes of limitations, truth in lending requirements, fair debt collection practice requirements (for state agencies) and even removed state usury laws from applicability to federally guaranteed student loans. Congress also gave unprecedented powers of collection to the industry, including wage, tax return, Social Security, and Disability income garnishment, suspension of state issued professional licenses, termination from public employment, and other unprecedented collection tools that are used against borrowers for the purpose of collecting defaulted student loan debt.

Concurrently, Congress established a fee system for defaulted loans that allows the holders of defaulted loans to keep 20% of all payments from borrowers before any portion of the payment is applied to principal and interest on the loan. In the absence of fundamental consumer protections, the defaulted borrowers’ only available recourse is to submit to a hugely expensive “loan rehabilitation” process whereby they are forced to make extended payments (which are almost never applied to the principal or interest on the loan), and then sign for a new loan to which additional fees are attached. This effectively obligates the borrower to a much larger debt than when the loan defaulted, often double, triple, or even more than the original loan amount.

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NY Toilet Cuts Enrollment

February 19, 2011 Alejandro Calderon General, Legal Aspects

Albany Law School, a fourth tier New York toilet, is cutting its enrollment by 10 students to 240. Well, it’s a start, but unfortunately they should be cutting it by 250. There’s no reason for fourth tier law schools to be open, no law firm is going to hire from them in this economy. Fourth tier jobs went to India a couple of years ago.

The exciting news was that law school applications were down 20 percent this year, and that means that not only has the word gotten out, OLs are actually listening and making wise decisions not to go. The law school scam is starting to suffer losses, and that makes me very happy indeed.

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Student Sues Law School

February 6, 2011 Alejandro Calderon General, Law School

Law school is a one way street, and it doesn’t go in the student’s direction. David Powers was admitted to St. Johns School of Law (a toilet in New York), and when he filled out his application form, he included that he had been convicted of drug possession back in 1999. The school not only accepted him, they gave him a $20,000 scholarship. At the end of three semesters, he was third in his class.

He also is a CPA, and received a job offer from a prestigious firm and took a leave of absence. He had intended to go back this semester and also filled out his application to take the bar. He requested a letter of support from St. John’s about the prior conviction, but not only did they refuse to help one of their students, they rescinded his admission. Yep, they kicked him out for something they had known about. He is suing for a reversal of their decision to be total fucking hypocrites to rescind his admission.

Here’s what the University told him:

The University’s Assistant Dean of Students, Katherine Sullivan informed Powers in an email that, “information that you now provide in your [application’]…was not included in your [admission] application.” The university claimed he omitted the original charges for selling LSD and ecstasy to an undercover cop, according to the suit.

So, because he didn’t give the details of the charges he gets kicked out? Powers was a licensed CPA for Price Waterhouse, which is one of the best accounting firms in the world. He passed their background check and they knew about his conviction.

David’s real crime is that he forgot the most important rule about law school. If you’re a student and you made a mistake in the past and you’re honest about it, you pay for it the rest of your life. But if you’re a law school, like say, Villanova, and you “fudge” numbers to steal more money from students, you can lie for years and stay in business. One way street, David, and unfortunately, not going in your direction.

Dean Admits Inaccurate Data

February 5, 2011 Alejandro Calderon General, Legal Profession

John Gotanda, the dean of Villanova School of Law, has admitted the school “knowingly reported inaccurate admissions data” to the ABA for YEARS.

He claims in a letter that he wasn’t aware of the problem until a couple of weeks ago. The school has started a “comprehensive internal investigation.” Kind of like a rapist going out and getting condoms after the rape. Won’t really help, but I guess there should be some points for effort.

Villanova said that it “appears the lies inaccurate information was limited to LSAT and GPA scores.” They have not said why they lied their asses off reported incorrect information. For years and years. No idea why.

I can think of a reason. Could it be they were trying to skew their rankings? So they could get more lemmings to go there? But that would be dishonest, and aren’t all law schools models of integrity?

Jail For Insults

February 2, 2011 Alejandro Calderon General, Legal Aspects

When your wife asks you if she looks fat, be sure to say no if you’re in France. This story came out last year, but I just found it and thought it was fascinating. There’s a new French law that makes “psychological violence” a crime, punishable for up to three years in prison. Could have used a similar law here for my last relationship…

The bill, which has been unanimously approved by French MPs, defines mental violence as “repeated acts that could be constituted by words,” including insults or repeated text messages that “degrade one’s quality of life and cause a change to one’s mental or physical state.”

With the new legislation, couples can call witnesses to testify including using doctor’s records that show depression as a result of the rude comments.

“The judge could (also) take into consideration letters, SMSs or repetitive messages, because one knows that psychological violence is made up of insults,” she added.

However, French judges don’t seem to want to get in on the party and were “deeply sceptical” about the new law. Even though the law was modeled on worker’s sexual harassment judges fear that witnesses in domestic case won’t be objective.

True, one man’s fat ignorant slut is another man’s skinny smart dream girl. There’s really no accounting for taste, so who is going to judge whether someone is being insulted or just told the truth?