News Story (NATIONAL)
Stacy Cowley, Jessica Silver-Greenberg
New York Times (NYT)
July 17, 2017
READ THE FULL STORY HERE
Tags: Student Debt, Student Loan Forgiveness
Organizations mentioned/involved: New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG), National Consumer Law Center (NCLC), Legal Aid Society of San Diego (LASSD)
DETAILS
Judges have already dismissed dozens of lawsuits against former students, essentially wiping out their debt, because documents proving who owns the loans are missing. A review of court records by The New York Times shows that many other collection cases are deeply flawed, with incomplete ownership records and mass-produced documentation.
Some of the problems playing out now in the $108 billion private student loan market are reminiscent of those that arose from the subprime mortgage crisis a decade ago, when billions of dollars in subprime mortgage loans were ruled uncollectible by courts because of missing or fake documentation. And like those troubled mortgages, private student loans — which come with higher interest rates and fewer consumer protections than federal loans — are often targeted at the most vulnerable borrowers, like those attending for-profit schools.