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NYLAG Successfully Sues Department of Education for Four-Year Delay in Deciding Loan Cancellation Applications

Colon v. DeVos

Tina Carr and Yvette Colon attended a for-profit college, the Sanford-Brown Institute, that lied to them to get them to enroll. The New York Attorney General investigated, and found that Sanford-Brown lied to its students, including telling students at the campus Ms. Carr attended that 80% of its students got jobs, when the real rate was only 26%.

In March 2015, NYLAG applied to the Department of Education to cancel the student loans Ms. Carr and Ms. Colon borrowed to attend Sanford-Brown. NYLAG attached over one hundred pages of supporting evidence, including the New York Attorney General’s Findings. 

In June 2019, NYLAG sued the Secretary of Education on behalf of Ms. Carr and Ms. Colon, because the Department of Education had not taken any action on their applications for debt relief since they were submitted, more than four years earlier. Ms. Carr and Ms. Colon—along with more than 100,000 other borrowers whose applications have been ignored—continue to struggle with burdensome and insurmountable student loan debt. 

“Tina Carr and Yvette Colon did everything right. They submitted evidence—substantiated by the Office of the New York State Attorney General—that Sanford-Brown deceived them into taking out loans to get an ‘education’ that would never lead to gainful employment,” said Jane Greengold Stevens, co-director of NYLAG’s Special Litigation Unit. “Ms. Carr, Ms. Colon, and too many other students are still suffering every day from damaged credit and the threat of collection on these unlawful loans. We had no choice but to go to court.” 

As a result of the lawsuit, the United States Department of Education agreed to zero out the balances of Ms. Carr’s and Ms. Colon’s loans, take no further action on the loans, and cease negative credit reporting—freeing them from this unfair debt.   

More Information:

Name: Colon v. DeVos

Dkt. #: 19 Civ. 6597 (S.D.N.Y 2019)

Judge: Hon. P. Kevin Castel

Status: Settled

Co-Counsel: Project on Predatory Student Lending of the Legal Services Center of Harvard Law School

Claims:

Unlawful delay under the Administrative Procedure Act.

Highlights:

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