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360 DigiTech, Inc. Securities Fraud Investigation
Investigation Deadline: December 1, 2023
October 23, 2025
News
A Big Pro Bono Win for Student Borrowers in Income Driven Repayment (IDR) Programs
Berger Montague, a leading national plaintiffs’ law firm, has achieved a significant pro bono victory for student borrowers in Income Driven Repayment (IDR) programs for student loans in American Federation of Teachers vs. U.S. Department of Education. The U.S. Department of Education was not cancelling the loans in a timely manner after borrowers made the 300 qualifying payments, causing borrowers to rack up additional debt, suffer credit reporting inaccuracies, and face significant tax consequences.
“The agreement we reached with the Department of Education now considers the loan cancellation as occurring after the qualifying payments are made,” said Shareholder John Albanese. “If the loans were not cancelled by the end of this year, any future cancellations would be considered taxable income,” said Mr. Albanese. “This is a big deal when you have six figures of student loan debt and make a teacher’s salary.”
Congress designed the federal student loan program to expand access to higher education and increase economic mobility regardless of one’s financial station. Specifically, Congress directed the Department to offer income-driven repayment (“IDR”) plans that tie a borrower’s monthly payment to their income and provide debt cancellation after making 300 qualifying payments.
The United States government, through the United States Department of Education (“the Department”), is the country’s largest creditor of student loans. Today, there are nearly 43 million federal student loan borrowers, with approximately $1.62 trillion outstanding in debt.
Berger Montague is committed to our pro bono program. In 2024, the Firm performed 2,200 hours of pro bono work, valued at almost $1.8 million.
Berger Montague is one of the nation’s preeminent law firms focusing on complex civil litigation, class actions, and mass torts in federal and state courts throughout the United States. With more than $2.4 billion in 2025 post-trial judgments alone, the Firm is a leader in the fields of complex litigation, antitrust, consumer protection, defective products, environmental law, employment law, securities, and whistleblower cases, among many other practice areas. For over 55 years, Berger Montague has played leading roles in precedent-setting cases and has recovered over $50 billion for its clients and the classes they have represented. Berger Montague is headquartered in Philadelphia and has offices in Chicago; Malvern, PA; Minneapolis; San Diego; San Francisco; Toronto, Canada; Washington, D.C., and Wilmington, DE.
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