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Rebecca Ellis Receives Consumer Law’s Rising Star Award
ATLANTA (October 24, 2026) – Today, in recognition of her contributions to the practice of consumer law, Rebecca Ellis, deputy litigation director at the Project on Predatory Student Lending, accepted the National Consumer Law Center’s 2026 Rising Star Award. The award recognizes attorneys who have been in practice for 15 years or fewer who have made major contributions to consumer law within the past two years.
Rebecca received the award in recognition of her work leading landmark litigation against the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in Sweet v. McMahon. The class action lawsuit has so far delivered more than $12 billion in federal student loan cancellation and $1 billion in refunds to nearly 500,000 former students of predatory higher ed schools.
Student-loan borrowers are waiting for 'legally required' debt relief that Trump isn't delivering, new legal filing says
Student-loan borrowers are legally entitled to debt relief — but they're still waiting for it to arrive, an advocacy group contends in a new court filing.
The Project on Predatory Student Lending — a borrower advocacy group — filed a new motion in its years-long lawsuit to get relief for thousands of defrauded borrowers.
Education Department May Be Sanctioned For Not Discharging Student Loans
A legal group representing student loan borrowers in a class action lawsuit are escalating their fight with the Education Department over ongoing delays in providing relief. The department and Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, the group argues, are not discharging the federal student loans for hundreds of borrowers long after the deadlines to provide relief have passed. The group is asking a court to impose sanctions on the department as a result.
The Missing Data Behind the Default Cliff
Nearly a year after the Trump Administration announced it would resume “involuntary collection,” the federal student loan collections apparatus still does not exist in any stable form. In the most recent announcement on default, the Trump Administration revealed that it was finally letting borrowers apply for default relief programs… using the internet. The third and final blog in this series looks at the root of the collection problem: mounting evidence suggests the U.S. Department of Education (ED) may not even have the data it needs to certify these debts for collection in the first place—a legal prerequisite the government cannot skip no matter which vendor is holding the file.
Was your student loan debt really forgiven? Why it might still be on your credit report.
The Department of Education may still be reporting $4.6 billion in canceled student loan debt to credit bureaus, according to a proposed class action lawsuit.
The suit, filed last week by student borrowers alongside the Project on Predatory Student Lending (PPSL), alleges that the Education Department reported canceled debt as still outstanding to the three major credit bureaus.
Student Loan Borrowers Sue Education Department For Botching Loan Discharges
A group of defrauded students says the Education Department continued to report their student loans as active to credit bureaus, years after canceling the debt.
Students sue Education Dept., claiming it reported $4.6B in canceled loans as debt
A group of defrauded students says the Education Department continued to report their student loans as active to credit bureaus, years after canceling the debt.
Student loan borrowers sue Trump administration over forgiven debts on credit reports
A group of student loan borrowers sued the Trump administration on Thursday, alleging they suffered unexpected financial damages despite getting their debts forgiven years ago.
300,000 student-loan borrowers got their debt wiped out — but their credit is still taking a hit, a new lawsuit says
The lawsuit concerns borrowers whose loans were wiped out via the borrower defense to repayment program, after they were defrauded by "predatory for-profit" schools, including Ashford University and ITT Technical Institute. It specifically pertains to borrowers who received such relief between April 2022 and January 2025.