Working with The Moskowitz Law Firm in Coral Gables, today I filed a class action on behalf of Florida residents who attend college within the State University System of Florida. This includes Florida A&M University, Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida International University, Florida Polytechnic University, Florida State University, New College of Florida, University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida. Here's a copy of the complaint:
As with the other cases I've filed, we are not seeking tuition refunds. That's not what this is about. Our cases are about campus fees. It's wrong for the schools to keep money for services they are no longer providing. The University of Florida has basically admitted that they know they cannot charge fees for campus services now that campuses are closed. When they recently changed fees for summer to eliminate the campus fees, an associate provost explained: “The general rationalization was, with the students gone, it was no longer necessary for them to pay for access to services that will not be where they are.”
With this lawsuit and the others that we've filed, we hope to achieve what the students have been unable to achieve on their own: ensure that the schools stop charging fees for services no longer available and return funds they are holding onto for services that have not been provided. That money belongs to the students. Through these lawsuits, we encourage the universities to reconsider their positions and make more fair, legal, and empathetic decisions for their students and their families.
Students and families are understandably upset by the lack of refunds and they want relief. Fortunately, many schools have done the right thing and provided proper refunds, but for those schools that are not, we've stepped in to help.
Higher education is expensive enough as it is, and for the schools to refuse these refunds is unacceptable at any time, and unconscionable during this crisis. These universities have multi-million- or billion-dollar endowments to sustain them. Students and their families do not have the same resources and it is not their responsibility to bail the schools out. We got involved in order to give a voice to the students and to recover the money that's theirs.
In these times of crisis and hardship, one would hope that the schools won't make the students and their families wait for protracted litigation, but regardless, we are in this until the end. Our goal is to get the students' their money back and that's what we intend to do, no matter how long that takes. If the schools defend all the way through trial, we will look forward to hearing what the people have to say. We are confident that juries everywhere will side with the students.
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