Student loans are a whole different monster. And Sallie Mae is a bitch. I had my own loans through them and several of my friends had them as well. Fortunately, I had no problems and got mine paid off fairly fast. One of my friends has had nothing but trouble with them... He has auto withdrawal set up for his payments, and one time last year, they took out two payments at once...it caused him nearly a thousand dollars of overdraft fees... he fought with them, and fought with them, and to this date, they still have done nothing about it.... it totally ruined his credit.
Unfortunately, as far as I know, there is not much that can be done. Student loans are set up in such a way that not even bankruptcy, in most cases, will get rid of them. We filed bankruptcy about 10 years ago, and we still had to pay back my husband's student loans, which he had defaulted on 10 years before I met him. And if you default on them, the the government has the right to take your tax refunds to pay them until they are paid off.
I am, however, not a legal expert, so there may be something that can be done, that I do not know about.