Hi heather,

I have a complex question. My wife co-signed for a student loan (tuition advantage loan) from sallie mae for a friend about 6 years back. She naively signed it thinking the friend would pay back the loan of 15k quickly. She physically signed just the signature document and was never given the promissory note disclosure. We found out 6 years later, the friend had taken her info previously and taken out two other signature loans herself with my wife as the cosigner without my wife knowing. My wife was never given disclosure or promissory notes and never physically signed anything, However, it seems when we got the documents from sallie mae, there was an electroniic signature. I contacted the friend and the friend admitted that my wife never physically signed the two signature loans but claimed that my wife had given verbal permission so she filled out the email signature process herself. My wife started getting loan letters from sallie mae years ago. It turns out she went into forbearance many times so the total amounts ballooned.

How do we get out of this mess? The two signature loans should not even have my wife as a cosigner. Also, the loan she did sign for will not release my wife as a cosigner. Should I contact an attorney? Is there a chance we can consolidate the loan we sign for?

Any help would be great

Yikes.  Sorry to hear you are facing this situation.  I think consulting an experienced consumer lawyer is a good idea in this situation.  The National Association of Consumer Advocates (NACA) is a nationwide organization of more than 1,500 attorneys who represent consumers.  NACA lists its member lawyers by region and area of practice, including student loan law: http://www.naca.net/find-attorney.

There are also legal services organizations in each state that provide service for poor people.  The Legal Services Corporation (LSC) is a big funder of those programs.  LSC provides this list of the programs they fund by state: http://www.lsc.gov/find-legal-aid