On November 19, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had reached a settlement with three California-based student loan debt relief companies and their founder after they allegedly misled consumers by falsely promising that their monthly payments would go toward lowering their student loan debt. The complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District…
On November 16, 2020, the Maryland Attorney General (Maryland AG) announced a settlement with a Texas-based debt buyer regarding a portfolio of student loan debt the buyer purchased from a court-appointed receiver following the closure of a for-profit college. The $2,622,877 settlement immediately discharges any outstanding loans and refunds 75%…
On November 5, 2020, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a complaint against a California student loan debt settlement company and the company’s CEO in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. The complaint alleges that the company violated the Telemarketing Sales…
On October 20, 2020, New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal (“NJ AG”) and the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs announced that they had filed suit in New Jersey state court against a national student loan servicer for alleged unconscionable commercial practices and deception and misrepresentations made to thousands of New…
On October 7, 2020, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office (Massachusetts AG) announced a judgment obtained against a student loan debt relief company in Suffolk Superior Court for allegedly unlawful and predatory business practices. According to the AG, the company charged unlawful upfront and continuing fees to consumers, misrepresented the scope…
On September 15, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (“CFPB”) announced that it had filed a proposed stipulated judgment against a Delaware statutory trust after a settlement agreement was reached between the trust and forty-seven states plus the District of Columbia. The trust was created to purchase and hold beneficial…
On July 27, 2020, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced that his office had obtained an important win in a decision from the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as part of the Office of Attorney General’s ongoing court battle with the nation’s second-largest servicer of federal and private…
On August 21, 2020, Colorado’s Attorney General announced that the Denver District Court ruled in the state’s favor and found that a for-profit college violated the Colorado Consumer Protection Act (“CCPA”) and the Uniform Consumer Credit Code (“UCCC”) in operating its institutional loan program. The matter was initiated after a two-year investigation that…
On August 4, 2020, the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General (Pennsylvania AG) announced that it reached a settlement with a company providing financing to consumers seeking student-loan debt relief. According to the Pennsylvania AG, the company violated the Pennsylvania Consumer Protection Law and the federal Truth in Lending Act (TILA) through its alleged…
On July 30, 2020, the Massachusetts Attorney General (Massachusetts AG) announced a settlement with a Nevada-based debt buyer regarding a portfolio of loan debt it purchased from a for-profit education company. The settlement resolves the Massachusetts AG’s allegations that, between 2010 and 2016, the for-profit education company misled students by…
On July 8, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it reached a settlement with a Florida-based student debt relief company and three of the company’s officers. The complaint, which was filed in the Southern District of Florida, alleges that from 2016 through October 2019, the company violated the…
On April 29, 2020, the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office (AG) announced that it had settled its claims against a California-based student loan debt settlement company for alleged violations of Minnesota’s Debt Services Settlement Act, Prevention of Consumer Fraud Act, and Uniform Deceptive Trade Practices Act. Specifically, the AG alleged that the company…
On March 30, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it had reached a settlement with three student loan debt relief companies and their owner, resolving allegations that the companies made false promises to consumers and charged illegal fees in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTCA), 15…
On April 2, 2020, the California Department of Business Oversight (DBO) announced that it filed a lawsuit against a student loan servicer servicing over 900,000 Californians as part of the DBO’s investigation into whether the loan servicer was improperly converting federal Teacher Education Assistance for College and Higher Education (TEACH)…
As a result of COVID-19’s widespread economic disruption, the student lending industry has been impacted, from financial institutions to borrowers. In the past few weeks, the federal government has sought ways to address the student loan industry and offer protection to borrowers affected by the virus. On March 20, 2020,…
On March 10, 2020, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it obtained a permanent injunction and monetary judgment from the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (the Court) against three defendants that allegedly deceptively marketed student loan debt relief services. The Court’s order was entered on February 27, 2020, and…
On January 17, student loan servicer Educational Credit Management Corporation (ECMC) filed a notice of appeal in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, challenging the decision of Chief Bankruptcy Judge Celelia Morris, which granted summary judgment for a student loan debtor and discharged his…
On January 9, 2020, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) announced that it had filed a complaint against a constellation of companies for allegedly requesting credit reports without a permissible purpose in order to deceptively market sham student-loan debt relief services to consumers, in violation of the Consumer Financial Protection Act…
On December 10, 2019, the FTC announced a settlement with a major for-profit university and its parent company to resolve allegations that they deceived potential students in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act (FTC Act), 15 U.S.C.§ 45. According to the FTC, the defendants used advertisements to attract students…
On November 12, 2019, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that on it had filed a lawsuit against a collection of interrelated companies and individual defendants for allegedly misrepresenting themselves as affiliated with the Department of Education in order to convince consumers to sign up for student loan debt relief. The…