Being a Civil Rights Lawyer myself, I believe Googasian P.C. is a firm of legal representatives who, although, have been associated with the legal fraternity since years, have not been able to find any major success during their history. But the Belford lawsuit could get the Googasian into a fix since the case is being misrepresented on behalf of the plaintiffs. Given that this is a class action law suit, it has its weaknesses. Googasian is still pursuing this case since the past two years in an effort to make something out of it, but is still without any significant progress. I’ve followed this lawsuit through time, and would like to share a few developments along with various aspects of this case in the following passage.

History of the Case
In November 2009, a class action law suit was filed against Belford High School by Googasian P.C. in the U.S. District Court of Detroit which alleged that Belford High School is a “sophisticated internet rip-off scheme” that defrauds students of their money. The case was filed by Googasian on behalf of 3 students of Belford High School acting as members in the class action and indicted Belford of providing them with “invalid and unaccredited” High School diplomas. The case was also filed against the accreditation bodies of Belford High School, International Accreditation Agency for Online Universities (IAAOU) and Universal Council for Online Education Accreditation (UCOEA).

Current Scenario
Through the lifetime of this lawsuit, no significant progress has been in favor of Googasian or any of the plaintiffs. The fact of the matter is that Googasian won a major law suit against Academy of Court Reporting Inc in 2009, through which they achieved heavy financial gains, and have lost spectacle of genuine legal pursuits while being on an easy money mission. However, in this particular case it seems that the status of the plaintiffs is yet unclear. Some of the plaintiffs are reported to have already bailed out of the case while the rest are faltering with a dubious future ahead of them.

Although, Class Actions are an effective and significant method of curbing any commercial malpractices, my major concerns in this case are the repercussions that the plaintiffs may face if the case is being misrepresented. In a class action law suit, class members often receive little or no benefit from class actions and examples cited for this include hefty fees for the attorneys, while leaving class members with coupons or other awards of little or no value. Specifically in this case, the plaintiffs will not even get a full refund of the fee they paid to the school even if they win the case. Since it is being filed by Googasian on behalf of them, Googasian will be awarded the litigation fee along with compensation while the plaintiffs will only be granted an insignificant amount.

Why Should I Join the Case?
I have pondered a few times over the fact that what could be the future of the case since I’m ardently following it. But this is a class action case, which is being misrepresented and is weak on the plaintiffs end; although class action cases have their downsides as well.  Following are some of the reasons discussed for the same.

• Existing law requires judicial approval of all class action settlements, and in most cases class members are given a chance to opt out of class settlement. Class members, despite opt-out notices, may be unaware of their right to opt-out because they did not receive the notice, did not read it, or did not understand it. Similarly, through reliable sources it has come to my knowledge that one of the plaintiffs has already opted out of the case, while the rest of the plaintiffs are also planning to do so due to the insignificant stakes involved. According to an estimate, the class members would only get a maximum of 30% of the fee they paid to Belford High School for the diploma in compensation, while most of the compensation goes to Googasian along with the litigation fee. There were reports that a few members of the Belford Alumni wanted to become part of the class members, however they also backed out, realizing the bounty involved was inconsequential.

• Another error on the class members’ end was that despite having complete knowledge about the product/service being offered by Belford, they still went ahead with the case and became class members. The Belford High School website unmistakably states that the degrees are offered on the basis of life experience and test evaluation without having to take any courses or classes. The product is delivered to the recipient within 15 days of ordering and is fully accredited. Although class members had full comprehension of these facts, they still filed a case against Belford.

• Similarly, the class members deliberately knowing and understanding the clearly stated Terms of Service and the Refund Policy employed by Belford High School lodged a case against the High School. Since they were unsatisfied with the product or service, the plaintiffs could’ve easily gotten a refund of the full fee they paid to Belford, instead of the 30% of fee which will be awarded to plaintiffs if they get the settlement. The refund policy is also lucidly stated on the website and students can claim refunds within a specified time frame. I have gone through the Refund Policy and Terms of Service of Belford High School myself and was convinced that all the policies and terms are distinctly stated and should be comprehendible for a student. This is another shortcoming in the case with respect to the plaintiffs.

• There are other possibilities that this lawsuit may head towards. Belford High School, on the parallel, reserves the right to counter claim the class action and can file for damages pertaining to defamation, perjury and related charges. A class action lawsuit can also be filed against the plaintiffs on behalf of the Belford High School Alumni community since a lot of students have already gotten their High School diplomas from there.  So this could go bad for the plaintiffs.

Those were some of the reasons why I would not want to be a part of the lawsuit. The plaintiffs are evidently misrepresenting the case since a lot of problems pertaining to the comprehension of the product/service along with the Terms of Service and Refund Policy of Belford High School.  In my opinion the plaintiffs are misleading the case and are aiming for a large sum of compensatory money. However, what they are unaware of is that in any case, they won’t be going home with a lot of money.

Future Implications
If Belford High School files a counter claim on the plaintiffs, this case cannot move towards Class Certification, which is the last resort for the plaintiffs. Class Certification is where the claims of the individual class members will be authenticated and certified by the court in support of the plaintiffs. Upon certification, Belford may object to whether the issues are appropriately handled as a class action, or to whether the named plaintiffs are sufficiently representative of the class. However, the alleged claims of the plaintiffs seem baseless and trivial; and this case cannot progress towards certification. This situation in the future looks more likely to be favoring Belford High School.

Time changed, education evolved and systems improved. Fountain pens became stylus, Barbie pencil box became Power puff tool kits and classrooms became a place where children were least interested to be in. The evolution just did not stop; Internet became the breakthrough technology. Assignments were no more handwritten, homework was no more related to the course books and school bags replaced laptop bags.

Change is inevitable, so was the change in education systems. The dynamically changing educational industry had to keep pace with the global change through technology. Soon laptops were out and PDA’s were in, digital projectors replaced white boards. Google help replaced the search for assignment references in a library. Despite such a rapid change in the educational industry dynamically there was still some room for improvement and that even came very soon. The whole traditional education system was soon replaced by online education. Thousands of virtual and online universities have eliminated the experience of preparing your school bags on Sundays, keeping the most colorful pencil boxes and noting down every single word the teacher said is outdated.

Change for good or bad- is left for the readers to decide. The traditional methods to education might sound boring compared to interactive online universities which have made education and learning much faster, easier and accessible. Online education comes out as a revolutionary replacement to the traditional education methodology.

“The preamble to the Class Action Fairness Act stated that… class actions harmed class members with legitimate claims and… undermined public respect for the country’s judicial system.”

This is not at all a coincidence. See in your mind’s eye the orthodox conception of the legal shark; any person who would come to your mind will be a person chasing an ambulance; a specialist of class action so to converse. In recent times class actions have received a flawed status simply due to the fact and of the way some in the law profession have been able to influence the law to extract money out of un-suspecting defendants as well as inexperienced clients.

Don’t get me wrong. Class actions are a very significant tool and have been used extensively by well intentioned lawyers to curb in corporate malpractice, but it’s also a tool, that owing to its nature lends itself rather well to abuse.

Law firms or Lawyers who do not have the qualification to make themselves reputable positions in avenues of customary practice find it really easy to start a civil-action practice of their own. All it takes is a cheap workplace in an urban area with less educated individuals walking around.

As we’ve already discussed cases of very good abuses of class action earlier on this blog as well. Simply put, lawyer for class-action, although in a lot of cases do not charge their clients up front, expose their clients to significant risks of legal recourse, financial harm and may bring potential imprisonment. In case if class-action lawsuit is release, the defendant has the right to file a case in response. This thing makes a class action an extremely risky scheme or possible solution for the claimants.

Undoubtedly no one belonging to smart Belford alumni community would be ready to join Googasian’s task.

So it’s come to be. The court has finally granted Googasian the license to go ahead and serve the notice through email, fax or chat. What an embarrassment of riches. Googasian can now go ahead and discover what’s been specified in the terms and conditions of Belford High School for long now; that they are not a US based entity and any court proceedings in the state of Michigan will have no impact on Belford.  Belford’s been operating within the terms of service they clearly specified on their website and there have been no missteps on their part as far as the law is concerned.

This is turning out to be a landmark case though as service of legal notices through alternate means is something that the courts rarely allow. One of the reasons courts don’t do that is because it is by definition, an exercise in futility. If there is no possible way of locating a defendant except through email or chat, then that’s an indication of the fact that the defendant would most probably be out jurisprudence of any implications of the case anyway. Civil injury lawyers do not pursue such desperate cases to such extreme ends because they are fully aware that in any events these cases would result in outcomes that can’t be beneficial for their clients and would be construed as wastage of courts time and resources.
Well, Googasian has now managed to finally achieve that. The order given to Googasian to pursue discovery of defendant’s identity (without any attached subpoenas mind you) will eventually lead to a disclosure of information that’s already stale cake.  Belford are not based in Michigan, this will not lead to benefits to anyone and this may turn out to be a career threatening  mistake on part of Googasian.
Sure, the plot thickens, but it’s also heading towards a conclusion that we’d long established on this blog.

You can love or hate the iPad, but there is no denying that the future looks like there will be a tablet/e-reader type devices will be in the hands of every student. Widespread and fast adoption of these devices will mean that Universities, and in particular, the traditional brick and mortar kind who have been very slow to embrace technology will have to wake up or risk being left behind in the quality and flexibility of education they provide.

It might be hard to believe, but most professors still ask students to print and hand-deliver assignments. (Talk about inconvenient for both teacher and student and needlessly wasting paper). And who exactly are we kidding when we ask students to review reference material where there are only two or three copies at the library to be shared by a class of 100+ people? Educators need to re-think how they can make learning accessible, convenient and real-time if they want remain relevant for today’s students.

It will be interesting to see how education sector evolves as more of more people get connected through devices 24/7. This is definitely going to be a space where schools need to start early, start innovating and keep on evolving.

Disclaimer:

“All trademarks mentioned herein belong to their respective owners”

The Belford lawsuit as we predicted on this  blog hangs in the middle of nowhere now; in a lifeless limbo between the dead and the alive.

I’ll say bury it and move on. Amen and good riddance.

We all knew about Googasian’s troubles with the defendants being out of the jurisdictions of the court. They do not even know where the notice has to be served. Yes, you read that right. After possibly thousands of dollars in attorney time spent Googasian law firm has yet to serve the defendants. In fact correct that. They have yet to FIND the defendant.

I came upon this knowledge of course through my trusted friends in the legal profession who’ve been following the developments in this case closely.

The judge has now denied the plaintiffs and their representatives, ie. Googasian law firm’s plea to serve the notice by email or by posting on Googasian’s website. Not only that, the judge has refused to allow Googasian to appear before the court to make verbal arguments in favor of serving the notice through alternate means (email and website). The judge has also stated that there’s no evidence that the defendant has a physical presence in Michigan; which of course we know they don’t. They are an online school and the judge seems to agree with this fact.

In legalese, the judge has stated that the plaintiff’s motion was “not reasonably calculated”. That makes sense. I’d say it was a miscalculation that has landed back on Googasian law firm’s face.

With the notice now not getting served and the defendants not having the opportunity to legally defend themselves, and the plaintiffs having no further avenues to serve the notice, this case is as good as over. It exists probably now only in the minds of Googasian and on the few papers that he still holds on to as evidence of filing of the case. In fact, I don’t even see the plaintiffs taking any real interest in the case now.

I’d count this as another victory for online education in this battle of the future vs. status quo. I’ve been observing the vicissitudes in the history of education in this country for a while now, and there seems to be a genuine sense emerging now that online education is the wave of the future. And you can’t stop the future from happening.

In the legal fraternity this highly publicized lawsuit has had the effect of damaging Googasian’s reputation. This case has also put his competence as a lawyer in question.

Remarkable really.

I am sure the people at Belford as well as the alumni must be feeling really vindicated.

Disclaimer:

“All trademarks mentioned herein belong to their respective owners”

Dear readers, this is my second guest post on this blog. I am keen on sharing my views and observations about the Belford Lawsuit again, which has now taken a rather interesting turn. Those who have been keenly following the Belford lawsuit might be interested in knowing that Googasian P.C., the law firm behind the case, has recently responded to discussions, blog posts, and Websites regarding the lawsuit.  The law firm has claimed that all these discussions, which are mostly in form of blog posts and comments, are planted and/or published by Belford University!

Googasian further added that some blog posts are “threatening” its potential clientele (students who could have become participants in the class action suit). Well, my blog post here clearly does that, and for a reason! Whatever I wrote was based on my years of experience as a legal advisor and I stand by it. I will continue to warn students to stay away from any lawsuits of this nature. In addition, Googasian has requested a subpoena, using which, it would be able to unveil the physical location of the high school. It’s a little upsetting for me. Even if they manage to get a subpoena, and find out that the high school is not based in the United States, what then? The case will have no grounds to proceed. Moreover, subpoena is issued for cases where there is some form of copyright infringement, which I don’t see in this particular case.
Then, maybe they know that getting a subpoena will be of no use, and so they have also claimed that Belford High School has only recently changed its Terms & Conditions in order to defend itself from the class action filed. I assure you that it is simply not true as I have found their Terms & Conditions to be the same when we first discussed the matter on this blog. I think proving it shouldn’t be a problem.

All  Googasian has to do is provide digital time stamped ‘before’ & ‘after’ snapshots of the high school’s official website, precisely on the Terms & Conditions webpage. If the Googasian guys are reading this, I recommend they view http://www.google.com/dmca.htmlI personally believe that my blog posts and the countless others all over the internet have served their purpose. They have convinced a large number of students to stay away from the lawsuit and also learn the true story behind it.

Update December 26th 2009

May I update my folks on the hot topic of Belford Lawsuit. Yes, Googasian P.C has taken yet another desperate step forward, there again heading to nowhere of course. The law firm again claims that Belford operates from the Humble, Texas.

Last week Googasian P.C requested the court to issue a subpoena to Belford in order to disclose its identity, so obviously back then they were convinced that Belford does not function under US jurisdiction, but now they are back to square one, bringing up the same old accusation of Belford being situated in Texas.

I don’t want to press this one, but giving misleading and false information to the court can lead to the cancelation of the law firms license.

Why Students aren’t joining in?

Another interesting angle to the case update is that not a single student has joined the case, despite the thousands of dollars Googasian has spent promoting the case. I even saw it advertising on search engines. Considering the hype that has been created, I don’t suppose there is anyone who hasn’t heard of it already. So how is it possible that the lawsuit has the same three supporters that it had initially?

In one of the discussions with Edward, he mentioned the refilling and dire need for supporters for the case on the basis of legal documentation available online. He was rather fairly amused by the scenario in front of him. He good-naturedly compared Googasian with a wailing child who receives no acknowledgement because of his past record and unreasonable demands.

The fact that there is no addition in supporters and that too after refilling the case on the basis of “thousands of victims” only complicates the matter. Even if I put aside Edward’s claim of “incurable desperation”, I suppose even I can’t come up with reason to explain this erratic behavior.

I suppose, unlike Googasian, Belford Alumni knew what they were getting. They were promised a globally accredited degree based on their life experience and that is exactly what they received. Googasian needs to realize that students are much more technology savvy now and know how to browse while looking for something they need. They make informed decisions and advertisement campaigns by various institutions make that all the more transparent. To say that students were scammed would only be a baseless accusation, on the basis of clear terms and conditions stated on Belford’s website.

Though I was initially amused at the whole case refilling drama, I know realize the dire consequences that Googasian can face for going over the board. Whether incompetent or acting as a mask for some propaganda, this re-establishment of case only further engraves the negative mark on legal horizon by Googasian.

Moreover, it is not only Googasian that is at risk of counter attack but the class, however insignificant in number, can also made to face the consequences that will negatively affect their personal and professional life. Thus, one should never under estimate the need for carefully thought actions indeed.

Students will not benefit from this class action lawsuit

Hypothetically, if Googasian succeeds in making a favorable decision against the Belford High School, the maximum compensation a student will get is his/her fee. On the contrary, Googasian law firm will get a sizable compensation for their legal services, which they are providing in running this lawsuit.

Following is a case in point:

Let’s consider the class action lawsuit filed by Googasian against Academy of Court Reporting in Clawson. The settlement of $5 million in tuition refunds were for 1,300 students for the tuition fee they paid. The court also awarded $2.5 million in attorney fees to the Googasian law firm of Bloomfield Hills, which took the case on a contingency basis, advanced about $170,000 in costs, and spent about 5,000 hours working on the case. The attorney fees and costs will be withdrawn from the $7.8 million fund, with the balance used to refund tuition payments.

Source: http://michiganlawyerblog.wordpress.com/2009/10/07/class-action-against-court-reporting-school-settles-for-5m/)

Students get 35% of their fee

Qualified students who attended the academy since 2000 will get refunds for about 35 percent of the tuition they paid.
Source: http://detnews.com/article/20091006/METRO/910060423/Court-reporting-school-to-refund-$5M-in-tuition-to-settle-suit

Risk of Counterclaim

“There are costs and risks associated with taking the case to trial”. Attorney Dean Googasian

The terms and conditions laid down by the Belford High School protect them from lawsuit, and if hypothetically, the court does not find them guilty, Belford High School might file a counter lawsuit against all parties in the lawsuit. This might include the Law Firm and all plaintiffs (students who are part of the class action).

What is RICO?

Belford Lawsuit also falls under RICO, details about which follow:

Most often, a civil RICO claim becomes an expen­sive distraction that can end up harming the cli­ent, for the danger is that a plaintiff’s injury can be shortchanged with all the judicial attention on the requisite intricacies of RICO pleading. A case, if pleaded as civil RICO, might be easily won, as “mere” fraud may find itself against a much more hostile court with serious consequences.

Therefore, plaintiffs who believe that RICO is a cheap and flashy way to draw attention and force a big settlement (to avoid embarrassment) are bark­ing up the wrong tree. What you will get, instead, is lengthy and expensive motion practice, with many reversals along the way. A civil RICO case will defi­nitely be farmed out to a large national law firm with substantial resources and a habit of drown­ing opponents in paperwork.

So what exactly could you achieve?

If you are already part of the class action suit, or plan on joining it, the maximum compensation you’ll get is a percentage of the fee you paid to Belford. Now in a case recently settled by Googasian, which I mentioned above, students got 35% of their tuition fee.  A fraction of your fee paid to Belford wouldn’t even get you meal for two at a nice restaurant. But more importantly, it will distract you from pursuing your education and building you career.

Dear Readers, this is my first guest post on this blog. Before I share my views on the Belford lawsuit, I would like to introduce myself. I’ve been associated with the online education industry since 1998 and have supported the online education system in the United States and globally. I have also been a critic of online schools and universities providing degrees based on life experience in particular. I think a lot of people who acquire these degrees might deserve and would somehow justify the degrees they hold, but there are people who are using these degrees to con employers and educational institutes. More than that, I hope I never end up in a hospital to be treated by a “doctor” who has acquired a medical degree based on life experience alone!
I recently read and heard about the lawsuit filed against Belford High School, a name not unfamiliar to people in the online education industry. Keeping my own opinions about life experience degrees aside, I would like to share my views about the futility of this case and why I think this class action suit will fall on its face.

Belford is an offshore entity.
As already discussed on this blog and elsewhere, anyone who is familiar with Belford High School knows that it is an online high school based outside the United States. What benefit, then, Googasian (the law firm behind this lawsuit) is hoping to achieve is beyond one’s comprehension. Erick speculated that the motive behind the lawsuit can be traced back to the online education industry players, who are after the institutions providing degrees and diplomas based on life experience. Well, I don’t think so. The people I know in that industry are smart enough to do their homework well in advance before getting into a legal battle like this. I would rather think it’s the law firm, Googasian P.C, who indulged itself into this lawsuit with hopes of getting a share of the settlement amount.

3rd Party Payment Processor part of the lawsuit?
Now this is where it gets interesting because why would someone include a third party payment processor in the complaint? 3rd party payment processing companies such as 2checkout.com, CCNow.com merely provide online credit card charging solutions to a host of businesses globally. Dragging them into the lawsuit will not help as their payment terms clearly give them protection. Besides, if any customer feels cheated by a company that uses one of these payment processors, he/she can call and get a refund. I got even wearier when I recently learnt that Belford’s Payment Processing Company is not even based in the United States. The case is losing its steam by the second for me!

Shooting in the Dark
I can recall several cases similar to this one, where a non-US entity was sued in the United States. One interesting example was of a non-US entity, which had incorporated itself in Delaware, USA. When the defendant was proven guilty, the plaintiff requested bank account garnishment. The court ordered an account levy, so the amount in the bank account of the party and the amount they recovered was $74 only. You see? There isn’t much you can do when the defender is not based in the same jurisdiction.

Protection by the terms of service
As Erick already said in his post about this case, the terms and conditions clearly safeguard the defendant. The affected parties cannot claim damages more than the amount they paid to get their diplomas. This is precisely why Googasian is desperate to make more students part of this class action suit. I think that even if they are able to gather 20 students, the most they can get out of Belford is not more than a couple of thousand dollars. So, Googasian will be the only beneficiary by virtue of legal fee.

What happens if Belford Counterclaims?
Hypothetically, if the class action suit is withdrawn and the court determines that Googasian misled the court and is countersued under rule 11, will it also be able to pay on behalf of the students, who unaware of the legal consequences are part of the lawsuit? According to Wikipedia:

Class members often receive little or no benefit from class actions. Examples cited for this include large fees for the attorneys, while leaving class members with coupons or other awards of little or no value; unjustified awards are made to certain plaintiffs at the expense of other class members; and confusing notices are published that prevent class members from being able to fully understand and effectively exercise their rights.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Class_action
Another case as an example:
Source: wikipedia.org
Hypnotist Paul McKenna was accused by the Daily Mirror newspaper of having a ‘bogus’ life experience degree from La Salle University in Louisiana. McKenna sued the newspaper for libel and won on the grounds that the newspaper had not proven that its allegations of dishonesty were substantially true.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5223454.stm

To conclude…
The legitimacy of life experience degrees is questionable and we can debate on that with people like Erick. But this lawsuit is weak in its knees, and is not going to bring order and justice in this industry.