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Personal Injury Law Is More Complex Than You Think

I always assumed that personal injury cases where pretty straight forward. After being in an accident, any financial losses that you suffered would be reimbursed by the liable party's insurance company. Unfortunately, things only work this way in a perfect world. In the real world, personal injury cases are extremely complex and getting the insurance company to pay a fair settlement requires the expertise of an experienced injury lawyer. Unfortunately, it took me several months to finally seek out the legal assistance I needed. As a result, I waited much longer than necessary to get the compensation I so desperately needed. During this time, I learned more about personal injury law than I ever thought I would. It is my hope that this blog will allow me to share that knowledge with you so that you can avoid making some of the same mistakes that I did.

Personal Injury Law Is More Complex Than You Think

Student Loans And Long Term Disability: What You Need To Know

by Christine Wagner

When you get injured on the job and find yourself dealing with a disability, you may start to panic about what you are going to do with your bills when you are unable to work. While your long term disability attorney works diligently to get you the disability insurance benefits that you need, you are left in a state of limbo. You cannot return to work, but you are not receiving your disability benefits. Luckily, when it comes to your student loan payments, there are several options available to you to help you while you go through the process. Get to know some of these options so that you can relieve some of your financial burden during this transitional time. 

Income-Based Repayment Plan

When you have a sudden loss of income or your working situation changes drastically, you may be able to change your repayment plan to help accommodate those changes. The moment when you began to repay your student loan, it was placed on a standard repayment plan. 

Under standard repayment, you pay a fixed monthly payment that will get your loan paid off within 10 years (120 payments). However, there are other options. When you are making no or very little income, an income-based repayment plan can reduce your payments to as low as $0 per month.

All you have to do is apply with your student loan company and then provide proof of income. If your income is $0, you will need to self-certify that you are not currently generating any income and sign a form to that effect. The monthly payment amount is re-assessed every year to set the payment amount. 

TPD Discharge

If your disability makes it so that you will never be able to work again (not just in your current job), you may be eligible for Total and Permanent Disability Discharge. This is a process that allows a person who is incapable of working to have their loan balance effectively cancelled without having to repay it. 

Your long term disability attorney will be able to help you get the necessary forms for TPD filled out. These include having a doctor certify that you are permanently and totally disabled, and it will also require that you send in income verification for the three years following your acceptance into the program. 

While your TPD application and paperwork is being processed, you can place your student loan account into what is known as a forbearance. A forbearance is a way to temporarily put your student loan payments on hold. 

Now that you know a few of the ways to deal with your student loans while going through the long term disability process, you can call your student loan servicing company and get started. 

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