Did 'troubled' appeals court err by nixing suit over New York Law School job stats?
Updated: In what may be a harbinger of a new round of litigation against law schools accused by their own graduates of luring them to enroll with misleading legal job placement information, an appeal to the state’s highest court has been filed by the losing plaintiffs in a suit against New York Law School.
A Tuesday filing asks the New York State Court of Appeals to review a December ruling nixing the suit against the law school by an intermediate appeals court, the National Law Journal reports.
Attorney Jesse Strauss says he also plans to appeal a trial court’s adverse decision last month concerning a suit against Albany Law School, and says he expects to see appeals in cases brought against law schools in other states, including three in Illinois. Although the result in most of the 15 fraud suits brought against law schools throughout the country hasn’t been favorable to the plaintiffs, several suits in California have survived motions to dismiss, the article notes.
“The prior appellate court found that my clients alleged a wrong, alleged they incurred crippling debt because of the wrong, but then stifled their remedy by improperly dismissing the complaint without allowing my clients to develop a factual record,” Strauss said of his own suit against against New York Law School.
In a written statement provided to the ABA Journal, the law school’s dean, Anthony Crowell, disagrees:
“We believe appellants have failed to identify any issue which merits an appeal from the unanimous decision of the Appellate Division, First Judicial Part,” he says. “The Appellate Division unanimously affirmed the comprehensive and well-reasoned decision of Supreme Court Justice Melvin L. Schweitzer dismissing the complaint in its entirety, with prejudice. It respectfully follows that the appellants’ motion should be denied.”
Additional and related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Appeals Court ‘Troubled’ By NY Law School Job Stats, But Says Lower Court Was Right to Nix Suit”
ABAJournal.com: “Judge Dismisses Alumni Lawsuits Against Two Chicago Law Schools”
ABAJournal.com: “Judge Tosses Suit Accusing DePaul Law School of Using Misleading Job Statistics”
ABAJournal.com: “Saying ‘Labels Matter,’ Judge Permits Law School Alumni Suit Over Job Stats”
Updated at 3:30 p.m. to include Crowell statement.
