Updated on July 12, 2023 to reflect new BDTR information and link to application on FSA.
You can print this form out, fill out the questions, attach any evidence or information and send this to the Dept of Education via certified mail.
Stuff you need to know to get the Borrower Defense started has been added in the comments!
For info on the Discharge process, refunds, tax liability, please scroll down to comments.
**Apr 24, 2024: Minute Entry for proceedings held before Judge William Alsup: Motion Hearing held on 4/24/2024 re 397 MOTION to Enforce Judgment. Department of Education provided updated data on borrowers with consolidated loans that it will file on the docket. Court adopted Department of Educations final proposed schedule for remedying the material breach of the settlement agreement with conditions. The updated schedule is as follows: (1) May 31, 2024: Full Settlement Relief for 5,500 additional class members; (2) July 31, 2024: Full Settlement Relief for 30,000 additional class members; (3) August 31, 2024: Full Settlement Relief for 12,000 additional class members; (4) Department of Education shall provide a date at which point it will provide Full Settlement Relief to remaining class members at the hearing with the Court on 5/23/2024 at the very latest. The conditions are as follows: (1) Three hearings with the Court on 5/23/2024 at 8:00AM, 6/13/2024 at 8:00AM, 7/11/2024 at 1:30PM, with counsel for the parties and servicers required to attend in-person; (2) in between the hearings with the Court, bi-weekly meetings attended by Department of Education/Department of Justice, the servicers, and plaintiffs counsel to resolve issues; and (3) if Department of Education falls behind schedule again, plaintiffs counsel shall notify the Court in writing and an in-person hearing may be advanced. Questions from borrowers to be resolved at these meetings may be directed to Bonnie Latreille at the following email address:
**Jan 28 FULL CLASS AUTOMATIC DISCHARGE/RELIEF DEADLINE HAS BEEN MISSED! PPSL is headed back to court on April 24, 2024 for a hearing on the Motion to Enforce the settlement.*\* If you are in the Automatic relief/Jan 28, 2024 AUTOMATIC RELIEF GROUP and you have not gotten ALL steps of your relief, please fill out the PPSL survey at the following link: https://ppsl.tfaforms.net/20
December 5, 2023 there are oral arguments on the appeal in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals generally takes 3-12 months to issue a decision, but it could come sooner.
Aug 17, 2023 Court of Appeals has notified the parties that it is considering oral arguments in the Sweet case For December 2023 or January 2024.
Aug 9, 2023 Amicus Brief in favor of Sweet submitted by National Consumer Law Center.
June 23, 2023: The DOJ/Dept of Ed has been granted an extension on their opposition brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. PPSL/DOJ/Dept of Ed briefs are now due on Aug 3, 2023. Intervenor reply briefs are due on August 24, 2023.
June 13, 2023: If you tried to apply for BDTR *before\* June 22, 2022 but were unable to because the website kept crashing and you *also\* filled out the Google Doc Survey from PPSL about this issue, please be on the lookout for an email from PPSL asking you for more details. Be sure to check your spam and junk mail. They need action on your part ASAP in response to the email. There may be a chance that this can be remedied for you to get you into the Full Class. See this post for further info: https://www.reddit.com/r/BorrowerDefense/comments/147zv0k/_/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
If you tried to file before June 22, 2022 but were unable to do so due to technical issues on the website and you have *not\* filled out the survey mentioned above, PLEASE DO NOT WAIT- FILL IT OUT NOW.
May 30, 2023 link to First Quarterly Report https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/sweet-quarterly-report-1.pdf
May 3, 2023: Intervenors have filed their opening brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. This *does not* stop settlement relief from moving forward for all full class and post class applicants.
April 13, 2023: after a vote, SCOTUS denied the stay/certiorari.
April 6, 2023: Intervenors filed a motion with SCOTUS for a stay on the Sweet settlement.
The following states have submitted Amicus Briefs IN SUPPORT OF INTERVENORS: Ohio, Utah, Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
They also asked that the court treat this motion for a stay as a Petition for Certiorari Before Judgement. This means they are asking SCOTUS to allow them to skip the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and go straight to SCOTUS with their appeal.
SCOTUS has asked for an Opposition Brief, which is due on April 12, 2023. They want to hear PPSL/DOJ arguments against this latest volley by intervening schools.
The docket is available here: https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=%2Fdocket%2Fdocketfiles%2Fhtml%2Fpublic%2F22a867.html&fbclid=IwAR34MMnBu8Puzt9l0aUcssP_60sqThH_veQkMvLDLYJNKpFlbxfuGPgbfoM
March 29, 2023: Stay pending appeal has been denied by the appeals court.
From the Order: "Plaintiffs-appellees’ cross-motion to dismiss these appeals for lack of jurisdiction (Docket Entry No. 15) is denied without prejudice to renewing the arguments in the answering brief. See Nat’l Indus. v. Republic Nat’l Life Ins. Co., 677 F.2d 1258, 1262 (9th Cir. 1982) (noting that merits panel may consider appellate jurisdiction despite earlier denial of motion to dismiss). The consolidated opening brief is due May 3, 2023. The consolidated answering briefs are due June 2, 2023. The optional consolidated reply brief is due within 21 days after service of the last-served answering brief."
March 16, 2023: Intervenors most recent filing in support of stay pending appeal is at the Court Listener link below.
March 8, 2023: PPSL response to intervenors has been filed. It is available t oread using the Court Listener link highlighted a couple comments down from here.
FEB 28, 2023: DISCHARGE NOTICES FOR THE FULL CLASS ARE GOING OUT FOR ALL BUT THE INTERVENING SCHOOLS (SEE BELOW)!!! CONGRATULATIONS!!! (Mass denials will be rescinded automatically.)
Feb 27, 2023: THE INTERVENING SCHOOLS HAVE FILED TO GET THE APPEALS COURT TO GRANT A STAY ON EITHER: THE ENTIRE SETTLEMENT, OR A STAY JUST FOR THEIR SCHOOLS.
For those who wish to follow, The Docket is: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, Docket No. 23-15049.
*****************************\*
I switched to save, and my account now says 0$ on the Ed site. I have 2 consolidated loans, which still show as Mohela. My borrowers defense are still showing pending.
The loan code is “Discharged due to school closure “
My loans have been in repayment since 1998.
Is this for real? I don’t care if I get BD at this point, 70$k in loans are discharged!!! I think……has this happened to anyone else??
I was approved under the sweet class July 6th last year. I was in the earliest batch as I originally applied in 2017. All of my loans qualify. I had two servicers, Aidvantage and Navient. Aidvantage discharged my loans and mailed me a refund check right away, within the first month. I called Navient a few times, they confirmed my loans were eligible and would be discharged and refunded within a year. Now that deadline is about a month away and I’ve seen zero movement from Navient. Online my loans show as being under administrative forbearance.
Has anyone had Navient miss the deadline? What happens if they don’t comply?
I just checked the student aid.gov data. There was an update and some of the numbers look different. Maybe refund is finally being processed.
This took a long time, but it is finally over for me!! I received my final refund check today (way more than I expected too).
It is over… finally over…
Consolidated loans/full class/partial relief in 2023
For context/situation, see my previous posts:
I called Nelnet today as I hadn't received any updates since they called me in April about resubmitting my refund request.
The rep I reached was able to confirm that a refund was processed on 5/16/24 in the amount of $18,404.45.
If I go into my Nelnet payment history, there were some updates and the numbers are different than they were in January. I clicked "Total Payments Made to Date" button, I got the following numbers:
| Payment Amount | Applied to Principal | Applied to Interest |
|---|---|---|
| $39,686.77 | $21,311.57 | $18,375.20 |
I had $20,751 in loans discharged under SvC Exhibit C. I received a small refund of $531.32 in December 2023, for amounts paid pre-consolidation.
Refund Calculation: $39,686.77 - $20,751.00 - $531.32 = $18,404.45
I had two consolidated loans (Direct Subsidized and Direct Unsubsidized) with loans from undergrad that were not under this settlement. Both loans were forgiven in 2021 under PSLF. The amount shown is pretty close to my own calculations on what I should be owed, in fact, it's a bit more than I calculated. Now, I'm just waiting for a check in the mail. When I get it, I'll be sending Theresa some money as a thank you. :)
I hope this helps someone out there!
Hi all!
I’m new here ever since the latest loan discharges occurred for those of us that attended The Art Institutes.
I received my email stating my loans were approved for discharge and that I don’t have to make anymore payments. However, my Mohela account still shows a balance as well as a due date for June.
Do I ignore and not pay per the DoE email?
Side question: Has anyone heard more on if there would be refunds associated with this case?
Thanks!
If you are a CCI victim (went to Heald / Wyotech / Everest /etc.), I need you!
This is only for CCI folks; other group discharge surveys and data collections are being worked on.
I have met with the attorneys over at PPSL. There is a plan for the next steps over this CCI nightmare. In order to execute this plan, I must get official data from CCI people who are still waiting for discharge and relief.
If this is YOU, please complete this survey. I am the only person who has access to it, but I will share the information with the attorneys at PPSL.
If you don't like surveys, I have also created a new email account related to this to be relayed to PPSL. It is [email protected]. Please email me.
Your email address is warranted so that PPSL can contact you if needed.
Please take less than 5 minutes to fill this out. It's just me doing this, and I volunteer to help, so be patient. If you see a typo or the link won't work, HMU.
I know we are all frustrated with this, so it's time to take action and officially hold these MFs accountable!
TY
Just curious to know how it went and if you have any suggestions?
Thanks
My loan has been discharged since early last year and am just waiting for a refund like most everyone that had paid their loans through Great Lakes then their loan was discharged through Nelnet. Nelnet had called me last month and the ombudsman said that my refund file was sent twice to FSA and an error was causing them to reject it. I’m guessing the same issue everyone that is from GL has been having. I decided to call today on a whim, no wait time at all surprisingly. The woman was very helpful and said that my information was actually updated today as “refund approved”. I asked if that meant approved by Nelnet or approved by FSA and she said by FSA so it appears it wasn’t rejected this time. She also said whatever the next step is for actually getting my refund there is no timeline bc they are VERY backed up. So no hope there and it may be forever and a day until I actually receive a refund but there is a small light at the end of the tunnel. Hopefully everyone in the same GL/Nelnet boat is having some progress now also.
When someone submits a Borrower Defense app and the Department of Ed finally gets around to reviewing it, does the school have the opportunity to review and potentially contest the claims made by the applicant? Does or did that process as all differ for Sweet v. Cardona?
So I know Judge Alsip said that all monies for refunds should have been sent to us via a check and NOT applied to the balances of loans yet to be discharged...
But what do we do if that already happened? I'm with Nelnet and they got all my info back in May 2023 but instead of discharging all my loans...they only discharged one, used my refund to "pay off" the other and now has left me with an $18k balance...
How can this be fixed???
I'm worried this might be a repetitive or dumb question, but I couldn't seem to find exactly what I was looking for..
What is the DoE's contact information? I was always under the assumption that the folks we spoke with at studentaid.gov were with the DoE, but I'm getting confused. I'm full class, received my discharge a few weeks ago. The people at studentaid said I needed to go to EdFinancial for an update on my refund check. EdFinancial said they submitted my refund amount to the DoE and I'd need to go to them for any further updates. But WHO is the DoE if not the people at studentaid, lol.
Would I be better off emailing the sweet email address?
I was also told my discharge would be reported on the last day of the month to the credit agencies and that it was on the credit agencies at that point to clear my credit.
Hi Everyone,
SvC class member here, I woke up to my surprise on all three credit reporting agencies - my school loan is completely gone.
I had reached out to all agencies a month or so ago and asked for the info to be removed due to the lawsuit. As some of stated, they didn't remove anything just "updated." Has anyone else seen this happen to them recently?
I did log into Student Aid and my balance is still there, nothing has been updated on Mohela since they are switching my account out.
I hope this is accurate....
Hi all,
I was part of the approval group this past January 2024. I received a portion of my refund in early April. I am still waiting for my larger 2nd refund due to consolidated loans which should be 22k-23k.
I call Aidvantage once a week for updates as well as checking the account history to see any adjustments. I called the Borrower Defense hotline today and was told word for word "I have the wrong department. We can't assist, you need to contact your servicer." ( I sent an email to Bonnie as well 2nd time hoping for a non generic response).
I figured what the hell, call Aidvantage and see what they say. The rep I spoke to wasn't able to confirm the figure for the refund but said I should have it by end of June.
Maybe there is a finish line throughout this painstaking ordeal.
I filed a dispute with them back at the end of March, and they just returned it as accurate. I followed up with a CFPB complaint based on that they were refusing to correct inaccurate information on my credit report. I just received a final response from Experian via CFPB. They “re-investigated” and updated the information I claimed should be deleted. Experian had to kick rocks and removed it from my report Finally. The last one left is TransUnion, but they are uniquely difficult to deal with. Sometimes when you try to find your info on the report, it says try again later. I think that is on purpose. I’m off to fight the good fight.
I just read this from the new quarterly report: 1,907 Class Members whose revise and resubmit notices became denial decisions during the reporting period covered by the Fourth Quarterly Report.
Seems like a high number. I feel bad for 1,907 borrowers.
I’m so excited because I logged into SA and my borrower defense has been processed essentially reducing my student loans owed from $400k to $66k! Mohela still shows the original balance though. Anybody have an idea of how long after student aid is updated before Mohela is updated? Also my credit report shows 0 for student loans so I’m not sure how long that takes to update to show the $66k….
I’m so excited because I logged into SA and my borrower defense has been processed essentially reducing my student loans owed from $400k to $66k! Mohela still shows the original balance though. Anybody have an idea of how long after student aid is updated before Mohela is updated? Also my credit report shows 0 for student loans so I’m not sure how long that takes to update to show the $66k….
I’ve been approved for both IDR and decision group for borrowers defense. I’ve had all my loans zeroed out, one credit agency removed my late payments, but EDFinancial says since I got IDR, I will NOT be getting any refund. I was told by several people involved in the SvC case that BD takes precedence over IDR, so they are in fact, wrong. Fingers crossed they get this figured out!
Hello Everyone
I am curious on the status of the full class decision group relief status. I am in group 2, received my approval letter on Jan 15, 2024 and nothing since.
I have read various posts here and FB of decision group class members who have already had their balances zeroed out. I am aware they have 1 year to complete the discharge from the date of approval.
I have Navient who is probably the slowest of all servicers when it comes to providing relief but wanted their money immediately when I was in repayment status
Please reply with the following
Decision Group Number:
The date you received your approval:
Your status as of today:
Your servicer name:
Thank you in advance!
I will go first
Decision Group Number: 2
The date you received your approval: 1/15/23
Your status as of today: No movement, no confirmation from of notice per Navient rep last week
Your servicer name: Navient
I filed my BD claim in 2021. Looking through my printed copy today and saw a couple of wrong dates as well as some answers that need to be edited. Is there a way I can make these changes? I know that evidence can be added by replying to my original ED confirmation email, but is there a different option to edit wrong dates or specific answers on the application?
