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January 2023 Consumer Law Updates

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Hello & Happy New Year!

Welcome to the LegalConsumer Newsletter!

Welcome to 2023. Here’s an update of what’s changed in 2022, and what’s coming in 2023, including:

Lots of year-end news and things to look for in 2023, so let’s get right to it!

January 2023 Update

Obamacare News for 2023

Bankruptcy News for 2023

Bankruptcy Changes in 2022

  • New Treatment of Student Loan “Undue Hardship” cases in Bankruptcy?
    (Under the Biden administration, the Department of Education has been instructed to take a much more generous stance toward the “undue hardship” standard for student loans discharged in bankruptcy under section 523(a)(8).)
  • Updated Federal Bankruptcy Filing Fees
    adjusted for every 3 years for inflation
  • New Temporary Chapter 13 Debt Limit
    (a limited, two-year increase in the Chapter 13 debt limit to more than $2M, with secured and unsecured debt lumped together)
  • 2022 Inflation Adjustments to Federal Bankruptcy Amounts
    • 2022 adjusted for inflation every 3 years, for
      • Debt Limits
      • Filing fee
        • Chapter 7 – $338
        • Chapter 13 – $313
      • Exemptions
        • Exemption: Amount
          Homestead  – § 522(d)(1) $27,900
          Motor Vehicle  – § 522(d)(2)    $4,450
          Household Goods  – § 522(d)(3)
          – Per Item Limit
          – Aggregate Limit          		 $700
          $14,875
          Jewelry  – § 522(d)(4)    $1,875
          Wild Card  – § 522(d)(5)
          – Any property
          – Unused homestead under § 522(d)(1)          		 $1,475
          $13,950
          Tools of the Trade –  § 522(d)(6)    $2,800
          Unmatured Life Insurance – § 522(d)(8)  $14,875
          Personal Injury Claims – § 522(d)(11)(D)  $27,900
      • Means Test
        • Dollar amounts under the means test for determining whether a presumption of abuse exists, based on the debtor’s income after expenses over a 60-month period, are now: (i) $9,075 ($151.25 per month based on 60 period) or 25% of nonpriority unsecured debt, whichever is greater, or (ii) $15,150 ($252.50 per month). 11 U.S.C. § 707(b)(2)(A)(i).

Updated Inflation-Adjusted State Exemption Amounts 2022-2023

Bankruptcy & student loan "hardship discharges" — Changes afoot!

Whether or not the Biden forgiveness program is allowed to proceed,  there are other changes afoot, in a different legal area, regarding the treatment of student loan “hardship discharges” in bankruptcy.

Lawyers for the Department of Education have been issued guidance on how to handle undue hardship cases in the future.

These new guidelines are aimed at making these cases more predictable and may allow you to evaluate your chances of discharge against the standards laid out in the new standardized affidavit.

You can view the text of the new affidavit and are working on an automated version of the form that you can complete and email to a local bankruptcy lawyer if you think you might have a case.

Wage Garnishment Exemptions

The NCLC has also published an excellent summary of wage garnishment laws in all 50 states.

 

Coming September 1, 2023 New California Wage Garnishment Law:

  • Effective September 1, 2023, pursuant to California SB 1477,
    • garnishment is limited to the lesser of:
      • 20% of disposable earnings or
      • 40% of the amount by which earnings exceed the greater of
        • 48 times the state or local minimum wage.
    • Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 706.050 (West).
    • (Prior to that date, garnishment is limited to the lesser of
      • 25% of disposable earnings or
      • 50% of the amount by which earnings exceed
        • 40 times the state or federal minimum wage )
  • Larger exemptions are available if debtor can prove need:
    • “the portion of the judgment debtor’s earnings which the judgment debtor proves is necessary for the support of the judgment debtor or the judgment debtor’s family supported in whole or in part by the judgment debtor is exempt from levy under this chapter.”
    • Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 706.051 (West).

Source -  NCLC

Electronic filing for self-represented debtors in bankruptcy expands across the nation

More and more federal bankruptcy courts are offering debtors the means to file bankruptcy electronically without the need of a lawyer, or online service.

Student Loans News for 2023

Don't be caught off-guard when Student Loan Payments resume mid-2023

After more than two years of forbearance, many Americans may have forgotten about their student loan debt. No one has had to make a student loan payment on federal student loans since Joe Biden has been in office (January 2021). ( the current forbearance actually began with the CARES Act on March 27, 2020, before Biden was elected, in the early months of the Covid pandemic.)

Biden's new student loan forgiveness plan is stalled for now — but so are payments — until mid-2023

The Biden administration took big steps on canceling federal student debt in the fall, forgiving up to $20,000 in federal student loan debt for a couple, (which, for many debtors, will wipe out their balance entirely), but the courts have stalled that process. And the courts may thwart him.

The supreme court has put the Biden administration’s loan forgiveness plan on hold.

The question before the court is whether the president has the constitutional authority to forgive that debt — whether the executive branch can do that without congressional approval.

The Biden administration decided to postpone the end of the forbearance until 60 days after the court decides the status of the loan forgiveness program (maybe August 29, 2023??) because the student loan forgiveness program was timed to coincide with the end of loan forbearance, which began with the current Covid pandemic, So it remains the case that no federal student loan payments have been required since before Biden took office in January of 2021.

Planning for the coming restart of student loan payments

Now is the time to start thinking about your options if student loan payments resume sometime in the middle of 2023.

Starting Points for Student Loan Research: Issues to Start Researching

Check out these articles to learn about getting ready for 2023.

 

Co-signers, and parents, are you ready for what's coming?

Did you know that if you've co-signed for your child's student loan, loan payments can be deducted from your monthly social security check if you don't pay them?

Preparing for Repayment to Resume (from FederalStudentAid website)

Here are four steps to make sure you’re prepared for student loan payments to resume:

  1. Update your contact information in your profile on your loan servicer’s* website and in your StudentAid.gov profile.

  2. Review your auto-debit enrollment or sign up for the first time. To do so, log in to your loan servicer’s* website or contact your loan servicer directly.

  3. Check out Loan Simulator to find a repayment plan that meets your needs and goals or to decide whether to consolidate.

  4. Consider applying for an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. An IDR plan can make your payments more affordable, depending on your income and family size.

(*Loan Servicer -  A company that collects payments, responds to customer service inquiries, and performs other administrative tasks associated with maintaining a federal student loan on behalf of a lender. If you're unsure of who your federal student loan servicer is, you can look it up in "My Federal Student Aid.")

If you haven’t taken advantage of the various income-based repayment options, now is the time to get familiar with them and figure out which ones may help you manage your student loan debt.

Other Student Loan Relief Programs, Attempted and Otherwise, Go Forward. (Thank You, Joe Biden!)

The treatment of various aspects of student loan debt under the Biden administration is in many ways an about-face from the treatment of student loans under the Trump administration -- under the leadership of Betsy DeVos.

Under DeVos's leadership, the Department of Education took a hard-line stance when it came to forgiving loans from failed private universities (Corinthian, ITT, Westwood, and Marinello, for example) that gave students worthless degrees after taking thousands from them in loan agreements, after promising a high likelihood of high-income jobs upon getting a degree from them when, in fact, such prospects were unlikely, and the degree from the educational institutional carried little or no weight in the job market.

The Biden administration has taken a much more generous approach towards forgiving loans of students of failed universities, where people ended up with worthless degrees.

The Biden administration released a series of rule changes that should make it easier for many student loan debtors to get relief, according to this NCLC article

They mention the following:

Source: Twelve Dramatic Changes Offering Relief for Student Loan Borrowers. - September 06, 2022

Unemployment News for 2023

Pandemic-enhanced unemployment benefits have come to an end

Wage & Hour News for 2023

27 States have updated their minimum wage for 2023

We've incorporated the 2023 changes into our city, county, & state minimum wage listings.

Many cities and counties have their own minimum wage laws. Click on the state and then click on the popup to drill down to your county to learn about your local minimum wage laws.

See Also: Raises From Coast to Coast in 2023 - National Employment Law Project: - December 21, 2022

 

Wage Garnishment

The NCLC has also published an excellent summary of wage garnishment laws in all 50 states.

Coming later in 2023

California Garnishment Effective September 1, 2023:

  • Pursuant to California SB 1477, garnishment is limited to the lesser of 20% of disposable earnings or 40% of the amount by which earnings exceed the greater of 48 times the state or local minimum wage.
    • Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 706.050 (West).
  • (Prior to that date, the lesser of 25% of disposable earnings or 50% of the amount by which earnings exceed 40 times the state or federal minimum wage can be garnished.)
  • Larger exemptions are available if debtor can prove need: “the portion of the judgment debtor’s earnings which the judgment debtor proves is necessary for the support of the judgment debtor or the judgment debtor’s family supported in whole or in part by the judgment debtor is exempt from levy under this chapter.” Cal. Civ. Proc. Code § 706.051 (West).

 

What’s coming in 2023?

God bless the fine folks at the NCLC who put out this incredibly useful list of consumer law changes coming in 2023:

Source: National Consumer Law Center -January 03, 2023

Where & What Data for 2022

Where You're From & What You Read in 2022

Well, it's time for our annual year-end review of the previous year's website traffic.

Every year, people like you from every state, turn to LegalConsumer.com for information about laws that affect their everyday lives.

We're always interested in where you're from and what you're reading. We thought you might be, too.

Here's where you all came from in 2022.

Where You're From

(All States - 903,541 Users )

States

  1. California - 75,362 users
  2. Texas - 61,279 users
  3. New York 57,452 users
  4. Illinois - 48,931 users
  5. Florida - 48,377 users
  6. Georgia - 47,474 users
  7. Pennsylvania - 35,720 users
  8. North Carolina - 33,967 users
  9. Virginia - 31,562 Users
  10. Ohio - 30,241 Users
  11. Tennessee - 28,498 users
  12. Washington - 21,692 users
  13. Missouri - 20,082 users
  14. Michigan - 20,058 users
  15. New Jersey - 19,527 users
  16. Colorado - 19,087 users
  17. Indiana - 18,724 users
  18. Arizona - 18,371 users
  19. Kentucky - 17,677 users
  20. Maryland - 16,933 users

Metro Areas

  1. New York, NY - 53,754 users
  2. Chicago, IL - 39,324 users
  3. Los Angeles, CA - 35,361 users
  4. Atlanta, GA - 34,626 users
  5. Washington DC (Haggerstown, MD) - 29,855 users
  6. Dallas-Fort Worth - 25,739 users
  7. Philadephia, PA - 23,890 users
  8. Boston, MA - 17,282 Manchester-NH - users
  9. Seattle-Tacoma, WA - 16,518 users
  10. San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose, CA - 16,423 users
  11. Denver, CO - 16,408 users
  12. Phoenix, AZ - 15,700 users
  13. Nashville, TN - 14,066 users
  14. Charlotte, NC - 13,542 users
  15. Houston, TX - 13,276 users
  16. Orlando-Daytona Beach-Melbourne, FL - 12,280 users
  17. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN - 11,419 users
  18. Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL - 11,170 users
  19. Indianapolis, IN - 9,910 users
  20. Raleigh-Durham (Fayetteville), NC 9,665 - users

What You’re Reading - in 2022

OVERVIEW: Subject Areas in 2022 (Page Views)

  1. Democracy / Elected Officials - 643,933
  2. Inheritance Law / Probate Courts) - 444,724
  3. Child Custody / Family Courts) - 304,225
  4. Unemployment Law / Unemployment Offices - 226, 905
  5. Bankruptcy / Means Test Calculator & Bankruptcy Court - 154, 203
  6. Wage and Hour Law / Minimum Wage / Tips - 130,914
  7. Obamacare / Rates & Providers - 122,380
  8. Student Loans  - 16,140
  9. Lawyers - 9,149

BY SUBJECT AREA:

Inheritance Law pages (444,724 total views)

  1. Local Probate Court Page - 136,065 views
  2. Home page - 66,647 views
  3. Topics - 227,008 views
    1. State Inheritance Tax  (topic 4) - 69,640 page views
    2. How Probate Works (topic 20) - 39,928 page views
    3. How to Handle A Small Estate (topic 7) - 30,034 page views
    4. What you need to know about inheritance law (topic 28) - 21,039 page views
    5. Who Inherits if your Spouse or Parent Dies without a Will? (topic 39) - 20,709 page views
    6. How to get a TaxID number in your state. (topic 19) - 15,858 page views

Bankruptcy pages (154, 203 total)

  1. Means Test - 49,697 page views
  2. Bankruptcy Court - 50,757 page views
  3. Exemptions - 18,342 page views
  4. Topics - 11,703 page views
  5. Bankruptcy Lawyers - 7,070 page views
  6. Filing Bankruptcy - 3,875 page views
  7. Bankruptcy News - 641 page views

Child Custody pages (304,225 total)

  1. County Family Court - 139,499 page views
  2. Home page - 55,932 page views
  3. Topic Pages = 107,054 page views
    1. How to Enforce a Child Custody Order in Your State (topic 5) - 49,244 page views
    2. How State Courts Make Child Custody Decisions  (topic 2)  - 27,104
    3. How Does Child Custody Work in My State?  (topic 7) - 12,427
    4. How To Find A Child Custody Lawyer?  (topic 3) - 9,286

Obamacare pages (122,380 total)

  1. Rates and Providers - 24,288 page views
  2. Home page - 11,311 page views
  3. Topic Pages = 90,511 page views
    1. What State Residents Need to Know About Obamacare  (topic 8) - 35,724
    2. Do I Have to Get Health Insurance in My State? (topic 5) - 25,010
    3. Do I have to get health insurance?  (topic 84) - 2,124

Democracy pages (643,993 views)

  1. Elected Officials - 351,282+256,537 page views
  2. Home page - 256,537 page views
  3. Topic Pages = 36,393 page views
    1. State Legislator List  (topic 44) - 975
    2. Who Are Your States Representatives In Your State's Legislature?  (topic 45) - 871
    3. How to call your Congressional Representative  (topic 16) - 702
    4. How to Confirm or Update Your Voter Registration  (topic 57) - 290

Wage & Hour pages (130,914 total)

  1. Minimum Wage - 42,094 page views
  2. Home page - 25,161 page views
  3. Topic Pages = 63,013 page views
    1. What are my rights to Tips?  (topic 4 or 5) - 39,593
    2. What are my rights to Time Off?  (topic 1) - 9,286

Thanks!

See you next month!

About Albin Renauer

Albin Renauer is the founder of Legal Consumer, which he began in 2006 as an online companion to his book, How to File for Chapter 7 Bankruptcy. Albin received his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1985. He worked for various public-interest law firms in the Bay Area and also as a staff attorney for Chief Justice Rose Bird of the California Supreme Court. He also spent 17 years as an editor at Nolo, where he helped create numerous books and software programs, including the bestselling WillMaker. He edited Law on the Net, the first online directory of legal resources and was the architect of Nolo's Webby Award winning website during the dot-com boom.