Cheryl is a sixty-four year old woman and for the first time in her life, she was being sued and it was by a payday loan company. Cheryl was worried about how this would impact her ability to maintain her household. As a great-grandmother, she maintained a four-generation household and her monthly income was not always enough to provide for daily needs.

Cheryl contacted Legal Aid and met with a Legal Aid attorney. During the meeting, her attorney discovered that Cheryl had been renewing and paying interest on the payday loan for a period of more than three years. It also appeared that the lender had violated state laws through their manner of accepting payment on the loans and how they chose to renew the loan.

The Legal Aid attorney agreed to represent Cheryl and through the discovery process, he requested information from the lender. This information seemed to indicate that some of the loans were not legally made. Essentially, the lender kept applying payments to the interest on the loans without properly paying down the principal balance.

The attorney filed a counter-suit on Cheryl’s behalf and eventually, after 18 months of litigation, the parties agreed to mediate the dispute under a retired judge. This mediation resulted in a significant monetary award to Cheryl.