Van Nuys Student Loan Debt Lawyer
The goal in a student loan case is rarely “make the debt vanish.” It is usually to stop the garnishment, get a monthly payment you can actually make, or find out whether the balance can be reduced or discharged. Wadhwani & Shanfeld is a consumer bankruptcy and debt relief law firm that handles student loan debt, Chapter 7, Chapter 13, wage garnishment, and creditor lawsuits for clients in Van Nuys, the San Fernando Valley, and across Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and San Bernardino Counties.
If you are searching for a Van Nuys student loan debt lawyer, the first thing to know is that student loans are not all alike. Federal loans and private loans follow different rules, different collectors, and different escape routes. Which one you hold decides almost everything about your strategy, so the first conversation should sort that out before anything gets filed.
Student loans are also among the hardest debts to discharge in bankruptcy, which is why many people assume nothing can be done. That assumption is often wrong. Bankruptcy can still clear the other debts crowding your budget, and that can free up the income you need to deal with the loans.
Why Choose Wadhwani & Shanfeld for Student Loan Debt Help
Wadhwani & Shanfeld is led by two Board-Certified Specialists in Consumer Bankruptcy, certified through the American Board of Certification. The firm has helped more than 30,000 individuals and families, and its attorneys carry more than 90 years of combined legal experience. Clients in Van Nuys and throughout the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles County, and the Inland Empire and Orange County can speak directly with an attorney from the first call, with no runaround.
Raj Wadhwani, a founding shareholder and partner, is a Southwestern Law School graduate who helped pilot the Best Case Bankruptcy software in 1998 and was the first attorney to file a bankruptcy case electronically in the Central District of California. Greg Shanfeld, also a founding shareholder and partner, earned his law degree from the University of Southern California and has handled more than 10,000 bankruptcy cases over three decades. That depth matters for student loans because the question is seldom just “can I file?” It is how a filing interacts with a loan that usually survives.
The firm files in every division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California, offers a free consultation, and can handle your case entirely by phone, email, video, and online chat. When a garnishment or levy is days away, the firm acts fast. Because it handles bankruptcy and its alternatives, including debt settlement, a recommendation is based on what fits your numbers rather than on the only tool a firm happens to sell.
Common Student Loan Situations We Handle
- Federal Loans in Default: A federal loan generally goes into default after a long stretch of missed payments. The government can then pursue wage garnishment and offset of certain payments, often without a lawsuit. Getting out of default and into a payment arrangement is often the first priority.
- Private Student Loans and Lawsuits: Private lenders and the collection firms that buy their accounts do have to sue to collect. A written contract claim carries a four-year limitations period in California, but an expired deadline is a defense you must raise in a written answer, or the court can still enter judgment.
- Wage Garnishment After Judgment: Once a private lender wins a judgment, it can seek to garnish your paycheck. Ordinary judgment garnishments are capped by a formula tied to your disposable earnings and the minimum wage, and you can ask the court to exempt earnings you can prove are necessary to support your family.
- Bank Account Levies: A judgment creditor can levy a bank account. California automatically protects a set amount in a deposit account without any claim being filed, but that protection does not extend to every kind of debt, including debts owed to the state.
- Student Loans Alongside Other Debt: Many clients owe credit cards, medical bills, and personal loans on top of student loans. Chapter 7 can wipe out qualifying unsecured debt, which can relieve enough pressure to keep the student loans current.
- Chapter 13 Reorganization: If your income is steady but stretched, a three-to-five-year plan can consolidate what you owe into one monthly payment, protect a home you are behind on, and give you structure while you address the loans separately.
- Loans Taken for Someone Else: Parents and co-signers often carry loans for a child’s education. Their options, and their exposure to collection, differ from the student’s own, and that needs its own look.
What to Do If Student Loan Collectors Are After You
Start by figuring out whether your loans are federal or private, and who currently holds them. Gather every notice, letter, summons, and account statement you have. Do not ignore anything with a court caption on it. A student loan lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County is typically heard in the Superior Court district that covers where you live or where the contract was made, and the Superior Court has a courthouse in Van Nuys. Your response deadline starts running the day you are served, and missing it can lead to a judgment you could have contested.
If you are sued, do not assume the collector can prove its case. Debt buyers sometimes struggle to document who owns the loan and what the true balance is. An expired limitations period only helps if you raise it, and a payment on an old debt will not bring a time-barred claim back to life. California also says a revival requires a signed written acknowledgment, so be careful about what you sign or say to a collector on the phone.
If a garnishment has already started, call right away. Filing Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 triggers the automatic stay, which stops most garnishments and collection lawsuits the moment the petition is filed. If you decide bankruptcy is the right move, your zip code determines which division of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California takes your case. Van Nuys is among the communities assigned to the San Fernando Valley Division, which sits in Woodland Hills. We confirm the division before filing so there are no delays.
Avoid the common mistakes: paying a “student loan relief” company upfront fee before you know what it does, making a small payment to a collector hoping it buys goodwill, or letting a garnishment run for months because you were embarrassed to call. Early action keeps more options on the table.
Can Student Loans Be Discharged in Bankruptcy?
Most student loans cannot be wiped out the way credit card debt can. The bankruptcy code treats them as a special category, and a borrower who wants them discharged generally has to bring a separate proceeding within the bankruptcy case and prove that repayment would cause undue hardship. That is a demanding standard and not every case clears it, so we will tell you honestly where yours stands before you spend money chasing it.
Even when the loans themselves survive, bankruptcy can still change your situation. Eliminating credit cards, medical bills, and personal loans can leave room in your budget for the student loan payment. A Chapter 13 plan can also give you a framework to catch up on other obligations while you work out the loans. In some situations, negotiation or settlement outside of court makes more sense than filing at all, and the firm handles debt settlement directly with lenders.
Protecting Property and Income When Student Debt Is Part of the Picture
People are often afraid that fighting a student loan, or filing bankruptcy, means losing a car or a home. California does not use the federal exemption list. Filers choose between two state exemption systems for the whole case. One offers a substantial homestead protection for homeowners, and the other offers a more flexible wildcard approach that often suits renters. You generally must have lived in California long enough to use these exemptions. Picking the wrong system is a costly error, and it is a decision our board-certified attorneys make carefully for each client.
Under the homestead rule, protection for a primary residence is tied to local home values, with a statutory floor and a ceiling that adjust periodically. That is why a Van Nuys homeowner and a renter can need very different strategies even when the debt is identical.
Student Loan Debt and Bankruptcy Questions
Can a student loan lawyer stop wage garnishment?
Often, yes. Filing Chapter 7 or Chapter 13 triggers the automatic stay, which halts most garnishments when the case is filed. If bankruptcy is not the right fit, other options may include contesting the garnishment, claiming an earnings exemption for what your family needs, or negotiating a payment arrangement.
Are federal and private student loans treated differently?
Yes. Federal loans carry government collection tools and repayment programs, while private loans are ordinary contract debts that typically require a lawsuit to collect. Your best strategy depends heavily on which type you have.
Can I get student loans discharged in Chapter 7?
Generally not automatically. Student loans survive unless you prove undue hardship in a separate proceeding inside the bankruptcy case. That standard is difficult, and an attorney can tell you whether your facts have a realistic chance.
What is the statute of limitations on a private student loan lawsuit in California?
For a written contract, the limit is four years, and oral contracts carry two. The deadline is a defense you must raise in a written answer, so do not ignore a summons expecting the court to notice it for you.
Will a small payment restart the clock on an old student loan?
Not on a debt that is already time-barred. In California a payment alone cannot revive an expired claim, and reviving it requires a signed written acknowledgment. Even so, think carefully before sending money or signing anything.
How long does a judgment against me last?
A California money judgment is enforceable for ten years from entry and can be renewed. Recent law limits renewal to a single five-year extension for certain smaller personal debt and medical judgments, which can matter if an older judgment is approaching its end date.
Can my employer fire me because my wages are garnished?
California law bars an employer from firing you because your wages are garnished for a single judgment. If you think you were terminated for that reason, talk to an attorney about it.
If I file bankruptcy, can my parent who co-signed still be collected from?
Potentially. Bankruptcy protects you, not the co-signer, unless the co-signer also files. A cosigned private loan can leave the co-signer fully liable, and a lawyer should look at that before you file.
Is it worth hiring a lawyer if my student loan balance is small?
It can be, especially if you have been sued, a garnishment has started, or student loans are only one of several debts. A free consultation lets you learn your options before deciding anything, and a collector who violated California’s debt collection law, which covers original creditors as well as third-party collectors, may owe you money.
Can I handle my student loan case without coming to an office?
Yes. The firm offers 100% virtual consultations and can handle your case by phone, email, video, and online chat, which helps if you work long hours or cannot travel across the Valley.
What if a collector is calling me constantly or threatening me?
California’s Rosenthal Act limits how debt collectors may behave, and a consumer who proves a violation can recover actual damages, statutory damages for willful violations, and attorney fees. The suit deadline is short, one year, so document the calls and contact us soon.
Serving Student Loan Clients Across Van Nuys and Southern California
We represent borrowers from Van Nuys and across the San Fernando Valley, including Sherman Oaks, Encino, Woodland Hills, Reseda, Northridge, Granada Hills, North Hollywood, North Hills, Mission Hills, San Fernando, and Sylmar. Clients also come to us from Hollywood, the Westside, and Santa Monica, as well as Santa Clarita, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Lakewood, Torrance, Compton, and Inglewood.
Our reach extends throughout Los Angeles County to the Antelope Valley communities of Lancaster, Palmdale, and Acton, and east into the Inland Empire and eastern San Gabriel Valley, including Ontario, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, Fontana, San Bernardino, Pomona, Chino, Chino Hills, Montclair, Claremont, Glendora, West Covina, and Riverside, as well as the Coachella Valley. In Orange County we help clients in Anaheim, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Buena Park, Fullerton, Huntington Beach, Westminster, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Tustin, La Habra, Placentia, Mission Viejo, and Laguna Niguel, along with Norwalk, Bellflower, Paramount, Gardena, Cerritos, Cypress, Signal Hill, and Huntington Park.
Talk to a Van Nuys Student Loan Debt Attorney Today
You do not need a perfect plan before you call. Bring the notices you have, even if they are a mess, and a Van Nuys student loan debt attorney at Wadhwani & Shanfeld will tell you what kind of loans you hold, what a collector can and cannot do, and whether bankruptcy, settlement, or something else gives you the best footing. The consultation is free, and you will speak with an attorney directly.
If a garnishment, levy, or court deadline is close, say so at the start of the call. Call Wadhwani & Shanfeld today to schedule your free consultation, in person or entirely by video.
