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sue a college for closing?
Sharp10r
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
If a school closes its doors, can a student take legal action? Has it been done (and do you know what the legal precedent is)? How would I find out? The school is private, accredited, and is college/grad level.
Sharp10r on
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That being said, my current interpretation of what you wrote is "my school is closing down because they don't have enough money. I want to sue them for the time/money I wasted trying to get a degree I won't end up getting." If that's the case, you're chasing money that doesn't exist. If it existed, they'd still be open and you wouldn't be contemplating suing them.
You need to explain what you're talking about here.
If you ask the office for help are they being helpful? Like, providing you with colleges where your credits transfer over on a 1 to 1 ratio?
edit: Sipex is on to something, the school would (hopefully) work out something with other colleges in the state to make transferring easier than it sometimes is with between colleges.
If all of them could transfer. with a 90 hour grad program, this is easier said than done.
Sue is a very general term. Do you want to sue them for loan forgiveness? Do you want to sue them because you've already paid up front for a degree and are now not going to be able to complete it?
Specify exactly what you are wanting to sue for, or expect to get zero help.
It happens. My University closed down the girls college and offered the students an opportunity to transfer to the main college, but didn't guarantee they would be accepted. Basically, the students who weren't accepted were fucked.
I'd like to assume yes but H/A isn't a good place to make assumptions.
Also, I know where I live (Canada) if the teachers go on strike long enough (more than a month I believe) you get re-imbursed for the school time missed.
You're shit outta luck, holmes. The "you have X years to complete this degree" is a time limit, not a promise that "you WILL have X years to complete this degree". This is aside from the fact that the student handbook isn't really a contract.
I'm going on assumptions but I'm going to say you might be able to sue for lost credits if you exhaust all your other options first and the school doesn't do everything in it's power to help you.
If the staff help you all they can and the school does everything it can I can't see your case holding water as you can't blame a school for going out of business.
Er... I'm somewhat confused. I've seen some schools, especially graduate schools, either shut down or lose acreditation. In both scenarios, the school generally announces something like "Starting in 2011, we will no longer be accepting students into the _______ program. Students currently in the program must graduate by May 2015".
If you're going to a school that has both an undergrad and grad school, I'd be surprised if they ran out of money so fast they just jumped their programs completely.
I'm assuming that you're paying for classes either by Semester or Trimester or Quarter, like most people in college do. If this is the case, you've paid for classes, you've taken classes, and you've received credits for those classes. At this point, at each (semester's) end, the transaction between student and school is complete. Should you want to continue, you may, and should they want to let you continue, they may, but there is no legal guarantee or precedent (that I know of, I am not an attorney) that provides financial or legal recourse if the school closes.
If you are unhappy with how the school is handling it's finances, you should take that up at a directors meeting or assembly the next time they have one.
Also, you need to be speaking with the admissions department of every school in your area regarding the transfer of credits. If you're school is accredited, they should be willing to make arrangements to let you finish your degree with minimal impact.
The schools response was if I wanted to finish my degree I needed to move from Los Angeles to Kansas City and to them this was a "Perfectly responsible response" they would even give me a tuition decrease of 20% (amazing since they were so broke they could not keep my campus open a little longer to let us all finish)
I was lucky enough to find a lawyer with a very successful track record to take the case on contingency, so if I don't win, I don't owe, if I do win, I have to pay 33%. I have nothing to lose. They feel the college will most likely try and settle due to if I win in court, they will have another 200 lawsuits coming from all the other kids who see they can get money back.
Good luck if you are still fighting the school!! A school has an obligation to give you the education they recruited you for, and you should not be required to pay for a degree they will not allow you to finish. And as someone said before, you need to contact your Financial lender ASAP because your loans can be forgiven under the right circumstances.