Equal Justice Works (EJW) is seeking civil legal aid attorneys who were notified that they were rejected from receiving assistance under the Civil Legal Assistance Attorney Student Loan Repayment Program (CLAARP) in a letter stating that they have no eligible loans.

Some civil legal aid attorneys were recently rejected for assistance because they had changed their last name since they initially took out their federal loans, and their names had not been changed in the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS).

Heather Jarvis of Equal Justice Works and Kelly Carmody of Carmody and Associates are in contact with the Department of Education about this issue and are attempting to address the problem.

If you received a rejection letter that says you have no eligible loans and you believe you have eligible loans, please do the following:

1. Call the number for the Department of Education on the rejection letter. Tell them you have eligible loans and ask them why you were rejected. If it was because you have a different last name on your application than on your loans, please tell them you want to appeal the decision (although there is no official appeal process at this time, the Department of Education needs to be aware of the scope of the problem).
    
2. Please complete the following very short survey. The survey is an attempt by Equal Justice Works to compile information on the scope of the problem to present to the Department of Education.
   Click here to take survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DNZRC2Q  

If you provide contact information in the survey, Equal Justice Works will send you an update when more information is available.