CASE UPDATE: Juarez v. Social Finance, Case No. 3:20-cv-03386-LB
Fair access to loans is a civil right. Our livelihood depends on credit because we use loans to advance our education, purchase a home or a car, or keep our businesses running. This is why it is critical for lenders to stop blocking entire categories of consumers from accessing loans simply because they are not U.S. citizens and instead evaluate their application based on their credit history and profile.
In 2020 Outten & Golden filed a nationwide class-action lawsuit against SoFi, a major online personal finance company, challenging policies that deny DACA recipients, and other non-U.S. citizens, equal access to student loans and other financial products. For the second time this year, Ossai Miazad and her team achieved a victory on behalf of her clients’ by beating back Sofi’s attempt to force them into private individual arbitration. In the latest decision, a court issued an order denying Sofi’s second motion to compel arbitration. So plaintiffs and people like them will have their day in court. “This was a positive outcome, but the struggle continues. DACA was enacted to help immigrants brought into this country as children to participate in American life,” says Ossai Miazad. ” We are continuing to fight so Dreamers, and other immigrants, are protected under our nation’s civil rights laws. Financial institutions should think carefully before creating policies that exclude or otherwise place barriers to access to credit based simply on citizenship status.” To find out more about this case, visit https://www.outtengolden.com/case/discrimination/social-finance-daca-lending-discriminaton-lawsuit
