Jason Madsen has decided to put his name up for auction on eBay in an order to pay off his law school debt. Madsen is a law school dropout, forced to quit, after his bad credit prevented him from borrowing enough money to complete his legal degree. Madsen said he will change his name to anything reasonable for a price, according to a report from Above the Law.
“I, Jason Madsen, will legally change my name for two years to whatever the highest bidder wants,” Madsen said in the eBay listing for his name change. “If you want my first name to be ‘Bob’s Supermarket’ and my last name to be ‘.com’ I’m cool with that, or if you want the first to name to be an entire business name — whatever works.”
Madsen completed one year at Charlotte School of Law and was “doing well” academically as he was passing his classes. He said he encountered financial aid difficulties prior to his second year of law school. In the eBay listing, Madsen said that his credit score prevented him from acquiring enough financial aid to pay his law school bills.
“My Grad Plus Loan was denied due to adverse credit,” he says. ”I now find myself saddled with a huge amount of debt without anything to show for it. I don’t want to be an indentured servant to the Department of Education for the rest of my life.”
Madsen informed Above the Law that he acquired over $100,000 in education debt overall and $60,000 of it is from his attempt at law school.
“I don’t want to return to law school. I simply want to pay off my debt and put everything behind me,” Madsen told Above the Law. “If I could do it all over again I never would’ve went to law school.”
Charlotte School of Law obtained full accreditation from the ABA in 2011. Law School Transparency reports that the employment score for the school is a meager 34 percent. The employment score is the percent of graduates who are practicing law.
Law School Transparency says that the average tuition at Charlotte School of Law is in line with the national average, which is $39,000 per year. For those who attend public law schools, the average student debt is $75,700. Private law school students come out of school with an average debt of $125,000, according to the ABA Journal.
As of Tuesday night, there have been no bids placed to re-name Jason Madsen. The minimum starting bid is $75,000.