Obtain your credit report. If you have late payments or defaults on student loans, your credit report will show how far behind you are. It will also show any information as far as lawsuits. You can get your credit report for free from Equifax, TransUnion and Experian once per year.
Report any errors. Often, credit reports can have errors because of a lack of communication between the creditor and the reporting agency. These errors can have an effect on your credit score. You can contact the reporting agency and have them remove the error. If they refuse, you can appeal the decision.
Catch up on payments. Your credit report keeps track of the payments and if you are 30, 60 and 90 days late, then it will show and lower your credit score. If you can catch up with your payments and keep them up-to-date, your credit report will get rid of the late payments and replace them with the new on time payments.
Work with the creditor. If you have defaulted on your student loan and have been sued to recover the funds, then the lawsuit will be on your credit report until the student loan is paid off or taken out of default, according to the Fair Credit Reporting Act. If you work with the student loan company, you can work to get it out of default, which will remove the lawsuit from the credit report.