SLM Education better known as Sallie Mae or these days Navient, is a student loan provider of federal and private loans. In this case they sued our client for Sallie Mae private student loans totaling over $30,000. Sallie Mae/Navient frequently retains the law firm of Forster and Garbus to sue consumers and execute judgments against them which are mainly obtained on default. In this case our client who lives in the Bronx was a victim of sewer service and never received a copy of the lawsuit against him. Forster and Garbus initiated a wage garnishment against him and that is when he learned that there was a default judgment against him. He quickly retained our firm to vacate the judgment against him as he was concerned about the garnishment as well as the fact that 9% judgment interest was being accrued against him on this judgment.
We immediately filed an order to show cause to vacate judgment in the Bronx Supreme Court which then immediately stopped any judgment enforcement proceedings such as wage garnishment against our client. We also asked for the judge to dismiss the case against our client as a part of the motion based on a lack of standing by SLM Education. Because SLM Education is a combination of securitized loans that are bundled together and floated on the market, similar to mortgage backed securities, we felt that SLM would have a difficult time showing exactly what this loan was made up of and whom the proper owner was. Due to this argument, Forster and Garbus contacted us and offered an out of court settlement that lowered the amount owed by 70% of the balance. They also agreed to vacate the judgment against our client so that there would not be any negative repercussions against his credit.