On April 4, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ordered a federal district court to enter a nationwide preliminary injunction to enjoin the Department of Education (ED) from implementing the Biden...more
On April 4, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued its opinion in CCST v. U.S. Dept. of Education, reversing the order of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, and granting a...more
On February 20, 2024, the California Court of Appeal largely affirmed an eight-figure judgment against Ashford University (“Ashford”), an on-line, for-profit college, and its parent company, Zovio, Inc. (formerly Bridgepoint...more
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals released a new decision in the NYLAG v. Cardona et al. case that may have implications for the everchanging legal and regulatory environment of Borrower Defense to Repayment (BDR) claims....more
A group of 23 Democratic AGs, led by Massachusetts AG Andrea Joy Campbell, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit case Career Colleges and Schools of Texas v. U.S. Department of Education, et...more
Over the past several months, institutions of higher education (IHE) have seen an influx of Borrower Defense to Repayment (BDR) applications from former students....more
Higher education clients who accept federal student loans may have recently received emails from the Department of Education (“Department”) notifying them of borrower defense claims seeking to avoid loan repayment obligations...more
On November 1, 2022, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) published in the Federal Register a final rule (the Final Rule) revising its regulations that govern multiple student loan discharge standards and...more
The US Department of Education published final regulations regarding the borrower defense to repayment rule in October 2022. In late October 2022, the US Department of Education (ED) published final regulations regarding...more
On July 13, 2022, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) published in the Federal Register a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (the Proposed Rule) to revise its regulations governing student loan discharge standards...more
Our Education Team examines how the Borrower Defense Rule is again expanding under the Biden Administration, beginning with a huge decision involving, for the first time, for-profit schools that are still operating. Nearly...more
Here are last week’s curated AG and federal regulatory news stories highlighting key areas in which state and federal regulators’ decisions are having an impact across the US: State Contractor Sentenced for Wage Theft, Pays...more
A group of 22 Democratic AGs, led by California AG Rob Bonta and Massachusetts AG Maura Healey, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York Legal Assistance Group (“NYLAG”) v....more
The Department of Education announced last week that it is changing how it determines relief for borrowers who assert “borrower defense claims.” Such claims allege that the borrower was misled by his or her school or that...more
A group of 22 state attorneys general joined by the District of Columbia AG filed a lawsuit in a California federal district court against Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and the U.S. Department of Education (ED) seeking...more
Culminating two years of negotiated rulemaking, the U.S. Department of Education (the Department) published on Aug. 30, 2019, new "Institutional Accountability" regulations that apply to all federal student loans disbursed...more
On 23 September 2019 the U.S. Department of Education (ED) published final regulations concerning, among other things, "borrower defense to repayment" claims for federal student loans first disbursed on or after 1 July 2020,...more
On September 11, we published a detailed look at the portion of the Department of Education’s long-awaited revised Borrower Defense to Repayment Rule (BDTR) that focused on the elements directly impacting institutional...more
In less than a year, pre-dispute arbitration agreements will be clearly permissible again now that the Department of Education has finalized its proposal to rescind the Obama administration’s “Borrower Defense” rule issued in...more
After announcing plans for a new rule last summer, only to miss the publication deadline, the Department of Education (ED) has – albeit still unofficially – issued its long awaited new update to the borrower defense to...more
The U.S. Department of Education (ED) has issued additional guidance in the form of several supplemental "questions and answers" related to implementation of ED's 2016 "borrower defense to repayment" regulations (BDTR...more
On 3 June 2019 the U.S. Department of Education (ED) published a two-page Questions and Answers (Q&A) document to provide additional guidance to colleges and universities about aspects of the final regulations often referred...more
• Recently released guidance from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) confirms that both private and public institutions of higher education must report litigation, settlements and other...more
As described in an earlier alert, regulations promulgated by the U.S. Department of Education in November 2016 (the “Department”) concerning borrower defenses to repayment (the “2016 BDR Rules”), which the current...more