Art Institute of Indianapolis and Elements Financial Federal Credit Union - Possibility of Private Student Loan Assistance

I was vaguely aware of the Art Institutes, that it was a big conglomerate of private for-profit colleges, that it shut down in 2018, and that there was a plan for forgiveness of certain federal student loans due to alleged fraud by the university.  Until recently though, I had never been contacted by one of the students.

That changed this week.  An issue came up regarding a private student loan through Elements Financial federal Credit Uunion for the Art Institute of Indianapolis.  

It appears that the Art Institute may have referred students to Elements Financial, if so, students may have an argument under the FTC Holder Rule that any claim they would have against Art Institute might be raised as a defense or partial defense against repayment to Elements Financial.  

This is a complex topic.  If you went to Art Institute of Indianapolis and were financed by Elements Financial or any other lender that was referred to you by the school, I am interested in talking to you, and we might have a shot at getting you some help.  Note that right now I am not dealing in cases involving FEDERAL student loans. 

If you went to any other Art Institute, or have issues regarding federal student loans, I urge you to contact an attorney in your area through the NACA consumer lawyer referral service at www.consumeradvocates.org/find-an-attorney.  

A general information article I found is linked below. I cannot vouch for the accuracy of the entire article, so get a second source before acting on anything contained in this link. 

https://studentloanbattle.com/art-institute-loan-forgiveness.html

Legal Fees in Perspective $2,750 vs $2.75 million - Bill Cosby

A news story today that Bill Cosby still owes $2.75 million in legal fees. We have no idea how much he paid over time, but there is no question that Bill Cosby was not a poor man going into his criminal case, I would expect that the unpaid balance is less than half of what the representation ultimately cost.

What strikes me is the disparity in resources people can put into different legal cases. I do a lot of consumer and business debt defense cases.  My fees for a standard business case range from $2,500 to $5000, because that's all the businesses can afford. For consumer cases, my fees are sometimes lower - when I can afford to do those cases.  That's on the order of 1/1000 what Bill Cosby put into his criminal defense case -- or to put it another way, for every 1 hour I can put into a case, Bill Cosby's lawyers put in a half year's worth of work - and he still lost. 

What I have learned is to make a defense case useful and worthwhile on a budget, you have to carefully plan your strategy. You must have well-defined goals and objectives, and a pathway to get there.