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ITT Student Files New Lawsuit Against Navient for Private Student Debt Cancellation | Press Release
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“Attacking the Concept of Debt” | Harvard Magazine
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Update | Borrowers Raise Concern over Borrower Defense Denials
Defrauded Student Borrowers Tell Court: Dept. is Acting in Bad Faith, Breaching Settlement in Denials of Borrower Defense Claims | Press Release
Student borrowers filed a motion asking for final approval of a settlement that forces the Department to process all pending borrower defense claims, while also asking the judge to enforce the terms of the settlement. The borrowers argue that the Department has already breached the settlement agreement, finalized in April, by issuing cursory, blanket denials of nearly all of the borrower defense claims it has decided.
35,000 Former ITT Tech Students Could See $330 Million in Private Loans Erased with New Settlement | Yahoo Finance
A new settlement related to the now-defunct for-profit school ITT Technical Institute would erase $330 million in privately-held student loan debt owed by around 35,000 former ITT students.
Update | CFPB and States Settlement with Private Loan Lender to Cancel Millions of Dollars in Student Loan Debt
As Betsy DeVos and the Department of Education issue blanket denials on borrower defense applications to former ITT students, the CFPB and a group of 44 states and the District of Columbia filed proposed settlements with one of ITT’s private lenders, known as PEAKS.
Lawsuit Against Student Loan Giant Navient Will Test Limits of Private Debt Discharge | Yahoo Finance
A former student at the now-defunct ITT Technical Institute and his mother are suing student loan giant Navient (NAVI) over the company’s refusal to cancel his private student loans despite the U.S. government erasing thousands of federal student loans related to the notorious for-profit school. The case could set a precedent for defrauded borrowers seeking relief from privately-held loans (as opposed to federally-backed loans).
Scammed Student Sues Navient, Asking for Cancellation of Debt he Took on to Attend For-Profit College | MarketWatch
For roughly a decade, Jorge Villalba has been contending with student debt that he believes — and the government has confirmed — he was illegally misled into borrowing. Villalba, 39, attended ITT Technical Institutes, a major for-profit college chain, from 2006 to 2010. Just six years after he graduated, ITT filed for bankruptcy, amid allegations the school used misleading job placement and graduation rates to convince students to sign up for classes and take on the loans that would pay for them.
ITT Student Files New Lawsuit Against Navient for Private Student Debt Cancellation | Press Release
Even after the Department of Education deemed Jorge Villalba’s federal student loans invalid and cancelled them due to ITT’s fraud, Navient not only continues to collect on his private loans, the lender misled him about the existence of a path to private debt cancellation
Former ITT Student Sues Navient For Student Loan Forgiveness | Forbes
Today, a new lawsuit was filed against Navient, the student loan servicer formerly known as Sallie Mae. The suit was filed by the Project on Predatory Student Lending at Harvard Law School on behalf of Jorge and Alicia Villalba.
Trump Administration’s Handling of Stalled Student Debt Relief Claims Threatens Proposed Settlement | Washington Post
A proposed court settlement between the Trump administration and defrauded borrowers is in jeopardy after the administration revealed its widespread denials of requests for student debt cancellation. Ninety-four percent of the debt relief claims the Education Department has processed since reaching the agreement in April have been rejected, the department said in a court filing last week. The federal agency issued 78,400 decisions, of which 4,400 were approved and the remainder denied.
“Attacking the Concept of Debt” | Harvard Magazine
Only a few years ago, Douglas Jones, who worked night shifts as a security guard at a nursing home in Roxbury, was hesitant to spend even $10 more than his typical budget allowed. Payments on his student loan debt were being withdrawn directly from his bank account. If the balance was short—for instance, if Jones hadn’t managed to get 40 hours at his job that week—the bank charged an overdraft fee. The debt had ruined his credit score and he hadn’t had a credit card in years. “They were even taking money I didn’t have,” Jones says. “It was stressing me the hell out.” Along with millions of other Americans, Jones had fallen prey to the for-profit college industry, which is in essence a two-pronged system—federal loans at one end and for-profit schools designed to access those loans at the other.
Update | Borrowers Raise Concern over Borrower Defense Denials
On August 31, 2020, the court overseeing the Sweet v. DeVos class action held a hearing on the Department of Education’s recent wave of borrower defense denials. The borrowers who brought the case had requested a hearing the week before. At the hearing, the borrowers shared their concerns with the judge that the Department of…