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After a judge denied her request to set aside a default judgment, nurse Hannah Bates lost $884 from two paychecks to wage garnishment. A later report says a judge approved a plan for her to pay $600 a month toward the debt, with payments expected to begin November 1, 2026. The court order itself was not independently reviewed, so the final arrangement is based on the reporting.
How the student-loan lawsuit began
Bates’s case involved a private student loan from Sallie Mae, not federal student-loan administrative collection. In October 2024, she received an email saying the lender had received the final payment on her loan. Bates said she still owed about $55,000 and had years of payments left, according to Business Insider’s May 2026 report.
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She had initially faced required payments of about $1,500 per month, but later said she could afford roughly $560. The report says her account defaulted and Sallie Mae sued about six months later. Bates represented herself in the case.
What happened in court before the garnishment
At a March 6, 2026 hearing in Michigan’s Third Circuit Court, Judge Annette Berry denied Bates’s request to set aside the default judgment and encouraged her to pursue a settlement or payment plan, according to the earlier report. Berry said, “I’m seeing this happen more and more,” and added, “They’re going after people for unpaid student-loan debt. And so if you think you’re the only one, you’re not.”
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How much was taken from her paycheck
In an October 11, 2026 follow-up, Business Insider reported that Sallie Mae proposed payments of about $1,600 a month. After Bates asked for a lower amount, a garnishment notice appeared on the docket. She then lost $884 from two paychecks, each roughly $2,700, according to the follow-up text reproduced in Yahoo Finance search results.
What the reported resolution was
The follow-up says that at the end of September a judge approved a plan for Bates to pay $600 per month through the court system, with the first payment expected November 1, 2026. That reported monthly plan was lower than the proposed $1,600 payment. It is separate from the $884 already deducted from her two paychecks.
Bates described herself as “optimistic” about the plan and said she felt better mentally because the debt was consuming less of her life. Those comments also come from the October follow-up as reproduced in the search-indexed result; the underlying court order was not independently reviewed.
What this outcome does—and doesn’t—show
The $600 arrangement is the reported outcome in one borrower’s lawsuit. It does not show that another borrower will receive the same payment plan, or that a lender or court will accept a particular proposed amount. The case figures—including the balance, prior payment amounts, garnishment and plan—describe Bates’s experience, not typical student-loan debt or collection outcomes.
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