Litigation
Lawsuits by non-profit advocacy organizations and consumer protection regulators, including State Attorneys General and the Federal Trade Commission, are an important tool in holding colleges accountable for predatory conduct and fraud committed against students and the taxpayers who fund the billions of dollars in financial aid that colleges receive.
While predatory conduct and fraud most often occurs in for-profit colleges, abuses are increasingly being identified in traditional institutions of higher education that are contracting with predatory Online Program Managers (OPMs).
Class action lawsuits, judgments, and settlements help to identify and address the egregious conduct and widespread use of predatory tactics used by for-profit colleges. Evidence developed through the discovery process has repeatedly brought greater awareness to the widespread nature of the abuses by for-profit colleges and by OPMs and led to significant financial relief for millions of students.
For a comprehensive overview of law enforcement investigations and other litigation and actions please see coalition partner David Halperin’s Republic Report.
Two coalition partners, the Project on Predatory Student Lending and Student Defense, lead the coalition’s litigation efforts, and their work has led to millions of dollars of relief for students who have been defrauded and helped to identify and stop predatory practices.