(631)-271-3737,
QUEENS 
(718)-751-0226
(516)-307-0262,
BROOKLYN 
(347)-508-9316,
BOHEMIA 
(631)-223-4502
(631)-271-3737,
QUEENS (718)-751-0226
(516)-307-0262,
BROOKLYN (347)-508-9316,
BOHEMIA (631)-223-4502
Take a position on a live debt relief issue in about 2,500 words. Three students get paid every contest.
Pay to the order of
MemoFirst prize, debt relief essay scholarship
$2,000 second place$1,000 third place
Submissions close at 12:00 AM (midnight) on January 1, 2027
Every Spring and Fall we set one question on a current debt relief issue. Three students win cash for the strongest essays.
$2,000
$3,500
$1,000
Online and part time count, and the school can be outside the U.S. Applicants under 18 need a parent or guardian’s permission.
This is the topic, the questions, and the law your essay has to work from. Essays that skip it do not win.
This topic examines how consumer debt collection law is being tested as technology transforms the way creditors and debt collectors communicate with consumers, through email, text messaging, artificial intelligence, predictive dialing, social media, and digital payment platforms. Write a focused analysis of roughly 2,500 words. State clearly which question or questions you are answering.
Use legal citations. Statutes, cases and regulations.
Take a clear position. Support it with authority and policy.
Name your questions. State at the outset which ones you chose.
The statutes, contested issues and policy trends behind this topic. Strong essays work from these.
Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, 15 U.S.C. 1692 et seq. The core statute aimed at eliminating abusive, deceptive, and unfair debt collection practices. Consider its definitions of “debt collector” and “consumer,” prohibited conduct, and congressional intent.
Regulation F, 12 C.F.R. Part 1006. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s modern rules on electronic communications, voicemails, emails, text messages, call-frequency limits, and validation notices.
Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq. Accuracy of credit reporting, the duties of furnishers and collectors, and consumer dispute rights.
Telephone Consumer Protection Act, 47 U.S.C. 227. Restrictions on automated calls, robocalls, text messaging, and consumer consent.
E-SIGN Act. Electronic communications and legally sufficient consumer notices.
State consumer protection statutes. Mini-FDCPA laws, deceptive practices acts, and collector licensing.
Case law to research. Jerman v. Carlisle, Henson v. Santander Consumer USA, Obduskey v. McCarthy and Holthus, and TransUnion v. Ramirez, plus federal appellate decisions interpreting electronic communications under Regulation F.
Artificial intelligence in collection (chatbots, automated negotiation, transparency and due process), electronic communications and consent, digital harassment and Regulation F frequency limits, identity theft and wrong-party collection, credit reporting accuracy and furnisher liability, data privacy and cybersecurity, and the balance between state and federal regulation.
Expansion of AI and predictive analytics, CFPB enforcement priorities under Regulation F, the shift from phone calls to email and text, growth of medical-debt regulation, new state privacy laws, and proposals to modernize the FDCPA.
Fall 2026 applications close at 12:00 AM (midnight) on January 1, 2027
Complete the form below and attach your essay. We read every submission. After you submit, you will receive an email confirming your application was received. Please keep a copy for your records.
Our attorneys and staff read every essay and serve as the judges. All decisions are final.
Three prizes each contest: $3,500 for first place, $2,000 for second, and $1,000 for third, for a total of $6,500. Prizes are sent about four to six weeks after the contest closes.
Winners agree to respond to our office, provide a mailing address, take a photo with the presentation check we mail alongside the award, and allow us to post that photo and the winning essay to encourage future students to enter.
Three winners split $6,500. The Spring 2026 topic asked whether the law should treat coerced debt, run up by an abusive partner, the same as debt a person freely chose.
$3,500Richard Bediako
The Bankruptcy Code assumes every debtor chose to borrow. Bediako argues that is false for survivors of intimate partner violence, whose abusers run up coerced debt in their name, and proposes reforms that finally recognize it.
Read the full essay →
$2,000Itai Hershko
Hershko argues that treating coerced debt like ordinary consumer debt reproduces intimate partner abuse inside a system meant to grant a fresh start, and proposes defining coerced debt and shielding survivors from it.
Read the full essay →
$1,000Jordan Simmons
Simmons compares treating coerced debt like voluntary debt to a mind-control trick in which the victim’s consent was only ever an illusion, and calls for statutory recognition of financial abuse in bankruptcy.
Read the full essay →We have awarded $13,000 a year to student essayists since 2014. Here are the recent winners, their ideas, and the topic each contest asked.
$3,500Correy Freeman
Freeman argues that neither blanket forgiveness nor the status quo is defensible, and proposes targeted student loan relief earned through service or hardship, paired with real reform of the bankruptcy discharge.
Read the full essay →
$2,000Eveline Aleksandrov
Aleksandrov frames student loan forgiveness as a separation-of-powers question, concluding that only Congress can write durable policy, and proposes a modernized framework that lowers the strict undue hardship threshold.
Read the full essay →
$1,000Daniel Dalrymple
Dalrymple traces student-debt policy from the GI Bill to today’s circuit split, and proposes legislation that modernizes the three-part undue hardship test with clear income thresholds and benchmarks.
Read the full essay →
$3,500Dana Morrison
$2,000Catherine Maness
Writing as a licensed therapist, Maness argues relief should reward genuine hardship and public service rather than forgive every borrower, and calls the bankruptcy undue hardship rule far too strict.
Read the full essay →
$1,000Kenneth Mars
Even earlier winners, 2015 to 2019: see the full archive →
Judging, timing, and what winners agree to.
Pick a question, take a position, and send us your best work. Three students get paid every contest.
Enter the contestFall 2026 applications close at 12:00 AM (midnight) on January 1, 2027
