In what must count somewhere toward credit, law students have sued American Justice School of Law in Paducah, Ky, for $120 million in a class action lawsuit.
The students alleged mismanagement, conspiracy, fraud, and racketeering by the administrators. It is difficult to maintain such lawsuits, however. Students are not like shareholders in a corporation. They are closer to customers who do not like the direction of a company or quality of its products. The courts tend to treat such quality issues are matters left to the marketplace. It is exceptionally rare to grant, as sought here, injunctive relief over the operations of a school.
With many new schools popping up on the Internet and night program markets, people are left with the classic caveat emptor warning: buyer beware.
Maybe this case just might be that exception. The plaintiffs are students AND a shareholder of the school against three named individuals (including the dean and assistant dean), not the school itself. It is not just about disgruntled customers. The suit alleges mail fraud, intimidation, misrepresentation, contract violations, etc. Everyone wants the school to be successful but doesn’t see that happening unless those two individuals step aside and allow the organization to thrive.
It remains a long and rough row to hoe. Courts are likely to be skeptical. It does not mean that the students are wrong. At our own school years ago, it was the students who rose up to object to the outrageous amount of money that the university was taking from the law school to fund the rest of the university – making law student subsidize building programs. However, most courts will likely see this as a slippery slope for future cases.
I think you are right about the futility of a lawsuit. In 1970-71, GW Law students sued to block a $100 per term surcharge for the then new student center, but they must have lost, because I remember being nicked for the charge. There may be someone around GW Law who remembers this.
LAW SCHOOL IS A SCAM – I went to a fourth tier school and I can tell you my degree isn’t worth the paper it is written on. I paid around $100K for my education, graduated, passed two bars and was then offered Attorney jobs paying between $28K and $35K per year. People with high school diplomas make more than that. If law school isn’t a scam, what is? I think more law suits should be brought against law schools to shut them down because they certainly aren’t doing anything to help anyone.
Interesting follow up. As JT predicted, the lawsuit WAS dismissed. The law school itself changed its name to Alben Barkley law school. It closed in December 2008. Read all about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Justice_School_of_Law