Yesterday, working together with DiCello Levitt and MichieHamlett, I filed a class action lawsuit against Liberty University seeking to recover refunds due to students for room, board and fees. Liberty University. There has been widespread coverage about the case. Here's a story from The Hill about the lawsuit. A simple Google search reveals many more stories about this case, and it is clear from all the online comments that no one is fooled by what Liberty is trying to do.
“Profiteering off a pandemic is wrong. Putting people in harm’s way is wrong,” said Matt Miller, plaintiff’s co-counsel and founder of Matthew S Miller LLC.
“Sadly, our client is justifiably concerned about adverse treatment from the university in the form of academic ramifications, public ostracism, or possibly even suspension or expulsion,” Miller said. “When you see the president of a university ridicule a parent on social media, you know that the university won’t do the right thing on its own. That’s why we filed this lawsuit.”
As stated in the complaint, Liberty University and its president, Jerry Falwell Jr., placed their students at severe physical risk and refused to refund thousands of dollars in fees owed to them for the Spring 2020 semester. The school suspended most services and moved classes online as COVID-19 spread, but then purported to remain open in a reckless ruse to avoid returning student fees for room and board and other activities. At the same time, Falwell Jr. tried to downplay the significance of the pandemic, claiming in an interview that people are “overreacting,” comparing COVID-19 to the seasonal flu, insinuating that the reaction was an attempt to harm President Trump, and even suggesting the virus may have been a “Christmas present” from North Korea and China.
Liberty claimed to be "open" despite a stay-at-home order in Virginia and all around the country, and despite the fact that the University moved all classes online and closed campus functions. Despite all of that, the University invited its students to "come on down" as if there wasn't a pandemic all around. This placed students and their families in the difficult position of deciding whether to remain on a campus that has been effectively closed and put themselves in harms way, or move home and basically forfeit the money paid for services no longer available. The University was not about to refund the money. That part was clear.
Students and their families attempted to obtain refunds from Liberty, but the University refused those requests, and in one instance, Falwell even resorted to insulting a parent on social media. In addition to Falwell’s Twitter outburst, another high-level school administrator contacted one student—and involved that student’s employer—who spoke out against the University and, in the student’s words, “chided” him for his comments about Liberty’s COVID-19-related conduct. All of this is detailed in the complaint which you can find at the end of this story from Law & Crime. Given the pattern of intimidation, it is not surprising that plaintiff filed the lawsuit as “Student A” out of fear of retaliation and harassment.
“Liberty’s attempt to profit from the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic is reprehensible and incredibly hypocritical in light of the values upon which the University says that it’s based,” said Adam Levitt, another one of plaintiff's attorneys. “This pandemic has already placed tremendous financial strain on many of Liberty’s students and their families, and the fact that Mr. Falwell would disingenuously keep the campus open as a pretext for holding onto student fees while putting their finances and health at risk is a stark illustration of where his true priorities lie.”
The complaint notes that: “Liberty has further shown its willingness to retaliate against anyone who criticizes Liberty’s COVID-19 response, going as far as seeking and obtaining arrest warrants for members of the media who wrote news stories critical of Liberty. Upon information and belief, people who have made social media statements about Liberty’s COVID-19 response or provided quotes in news stories on that same subject have received harassing or intimidating messages from Liberty supporters and critics alike.”
As stated by co-counsel Kyle McNew, "This is a simple case. When Liberty has shut down the majority of student services for the rest of the semester, and thus does not even have to incur the cost of running those operations, it should not be allowed to keep the fees paid by students to run those operations."
We look forward to pursuing this case for our client and the entire class.
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