I need to what other legal avenues can I pursue in reference to a closed school based on fraud and deception.

You need to go to the website linked below and check out the "Closed School Discharge" link and the "False Certification of Student Eligibility or Unauthorized Payment Discharge" link. We have assisted clients with the administrative discharge process and the paper work and the delays in trying to discharge the loans in this manner seem endless. As a result, at some point for some of our clients, we have filed bankruptcy and then filed an adversary proceeding seeking the discharge. Once an attorney is involved, we are told to use the administrative discharge procedure and we explain the difficulties we have had in this case. The attorney makes a few phone calls, my client starts the admin discharge process again and magically, he/she receives the discharge with the same documents that were provided in the past.

Unless the school closed while you were attending or within 120 days of you withdrawing, the fact the school closed doesn't help you and you cannot pursue "closed school" discharge. That leaves two possibilities, either (1) a "failure to benefit" claim or (2) a state law unfair and deceptive trade practices act claim. The first one is pretty technical and very narry; it generally requires that the student (you) actually graduate from the school but were unable to pursue the desired career due to the school not complying with state or accreditation requirements for the state license for that career. For example, if you went to school to be a LPN (Licensed Practical Nurse), but the school did not provide all the required courses that would allow, under state law, for the student to become an LPN, then you have "failure to benefit" claim and can get your loans fully or partially discharged. Failure to benefit does NOT mean a general inability to get a job or the marketplace doesn't value the degree from that school. Failure to benefit requires some sort of legal barrier that is in the school's control to overcome that prevents a graduate from pursuing the career. The second option is simply a civil claim against the school Basically, you have to sue the school and win, then you get a judgment for damages. The unfair and deceptive trade practices claims don't normally lead to student loan forgiveness, but if you win a judgment (and can actually COLLECT), the money you get can go toward your student loan debt.

Here is a bit of information that might help you, see: https://studentaid.ed.gov/sa/about/announcements/corinthian#fraud-violations-state-law