john r. justice student loan repayment program (jrj)

 John R. Justice

Student Loan Repayment Program (JRJ)

Heather Jarvis, Presenter

Today’s Agenda

• JRJ Overview• Eligible Attorneys• Eligible Loans• Tax issues• State by State Administration• Interaction with Public Service Loan Forgiveness and

other Loan Repayment Assistance Programs• Current and Future Funding

What you can expect to take away

• An understanding of the basic requirements of the program

• Whether your job makes you eligible to apply for assistance

• Tools to figure out which of your loans are eligible• Only basic knowledge about how the program will be

administered, and• No clear answers about whether you will receive an

award, how much you might get, and whether it will last

JRJ Program Overview

• Loan repayment assistance for state and federal public defenders and state prosecutors

• Three-year service agreement

• Up to $10,000 per eligible attorney per year

• Lifetime maximum of $60,000 per attorney

• Subject to availability of funds

Poll

Are you a prosecutor or defender?

Eligible Attorneys

State and federal public defenders andstate prosecutors

State and federal public defenders andstate prosecutors

• Must be “continually licensed to practice law”

• Must be “full-time employees”

Who’s a prosecutor?

• “prosecute criminal or juvenile delinquency cases at the state or unit of local government level”

• Full-time employees of a state or unit of local government (including tribal government)

• Prosecutors who are employees of the federal government are not eligible

Who’s a public defender?

• “provide legal representation to indigent persons in criminal or juvenile delinquency cases.”

• full-time employees of a state or unit of local government (including tribal government), or

• full-time employees of a nonprofit organization operating under a contract with a state or unit of local government

• federal defender attorneys in a defender organization pursuant to Subsection )(g) of section 3006A of Title 18, United States Code are eligible.

• Attorneys who are in private practice (and not a full-time employee of a non-profit organization) are not eligible, even if providing services under contract to the state.

Who isn’t eligible for JRJ?

• Prosecutors who are employees of the federal government are not eligible.

• Attorneys who are in private practice (and not a full-time employee of a non-profit organization) are not eligible, even if providing public defense services under contract to the state.

• Attorneys in default on repayment of any federal student loans.

Eligible Loans

Know Your Loans

Commercial and Alternative Student Loans Are Never Eligible

Find Out What Kind of Student Loans You Have

• National Student Loan Data System:http://www.nslds.ed.gov/

www.nslds.ed.gov

FFEL and Federal Direct

Loans

Eligible Loans for JRJ

Which loans are not eligible?

• Loans that are currently in default

• Parent PLUS Loans

• Consolidation loans that repaid a parent PLUS Loan

• Alternative or commercial student loans

Are JRJ benefits taxable?

Yes.

Who will administer the JRJ program?

• Governor-designated state agencies (or in the case of Washington, D.C., a Mayor-designated agency)

• Agencies must register with OPJ’s Grants Management System (GMS) and apply by July 27, 2010

• Only agencies are eligible to apply for funding

• Check your state! Has an agency registered?

How much money will be distributed?

• 10 million dollars appropriated for FY 2010

• Funds will be available to states based on the total population of each state with a minimum base allocation of $100,000.

Wyoming $ 100,000 Louisiana $ 127,106 New York $ 552,939 California $ 1,045,856

Poll

Has your state registered a Governor selected agency?

What will the State JRJ agencies do?

• conduct outreach and education about JRJ

• solicit applications from eligible recipients

• distribute funding equally between prosecutors and defenders within their state

• give priority to those eligible attorneys who have the “least ability to repay their loans”

So how much will I get?

• No more than $10,000

• Lifetime maximum of $60,000 per attorney

• Subject to availability of funds

• Annual federal appropriations required

Interaction of JRJ with Public Service Loan Forgiveness

and other LRAPs

JRJ benefits add to your income

Poll

Do you know about Public Service Loan Forgiveness?

Post Questions for Heather

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