Proposed class action vs. ODA

Lerner · May 2, 2006

Proposed class action vs. ODA looks like real deal

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http://members.lycos.co.uk/odaclassaction/

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False information on the ODA hurting your school and its graduates? Tired of the false statements and sniping? The laws of the USA allow us all to be heard in a class action lawsuit. The first step is to know who believes they should be included and why. If there are enough schools willing to publicly make these charges we can at least have real changes made. The laws can be overturned but not without your participation.

Our Mission
This site was and is set up to work with all of the schools who the ODA has maligned by failing in the basics of investigation of the schools. A class action suit requires a specific number of complainants with a common issue. If you are interested you must have or obtain from your school's board of directors permission to participate in this suit. The school should be currently or in the past listed in a negative light on the ODA site or one of its 'information' links. Neither you nor the school you are representing need be in the USA.

We are not willing to respond to emails which do not originate with one of the schools in question. A non disclosure as to participants and intentions will be the first thing we request from you.

Send mail to [email protected] with questions or comments. At this time only emails from schools who are or were shown in a negative light by the ODA will receive response. The initiating schools wish to remain at arms length until there are enough schools and individuals to form a class action.

Had a chance to talk to one of the folks who posted this call to arms for schools who believe they have been damaged by the ODA. This sounds like a sincere effort being organized by several start up schools. They are operated by decent, well-credentialed and thoroughly forthright people who had the misfortune of drawing ODA's attention and were labeled as "diploma mills" on the ODA website.

Because of the stalking and harassment emanating from other websites the main players are understandably cautious about going public at this early stage. However, as noted elsewhere, the schools who initiated this project have not been frequent topics of discussion on the boards, nor do they have any apparent connections to people who post. (Although now that the topic has been made public I wouldn't be surprised to see some of the better known non-traditional players join the fray.)

The group hopes to round up a sufficient number of schools to constitute a recognizable class. (http://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcp/Rule23.htm) Generally the number of plaintiffs in the class must be so large as to make individual suits impractical, so they are hoping to identify at least 20 aggrieved schools before filing.

The implications for ODA and those who supply them with "research" are interesting. I would anticipate that the moment a court certifies this as a class somebody in the Oregon attorney general's office is going to ask why the plug wasn't pulled on Contreras and his lawsuit magnet operation back around the time of the original Benton case.

I also would expect that the private "consultants" and "researchers" who have supplied ODA with inaccurate or speculative information are going to be identified and could be joined as defendants at some point.

While there are lots of interesting legal issues here, the simple fact that you have some schools that have never even issued a degree being proclaimed as "degree mills" by the government would seem to stand as the biggest logical hurdle for ODA to overcome in its defense. That they were so proclaimed by the government without hearing or notice only compounds ODA's problem.

Some of the more amusing issues have been covered elsewhere, but you can't beat the entertainment value of any case where the main defendant is a guy who calls himself "The Fat Homo." Add "researchers" who post their research on sites operated by gay pedophile pornographers, and you've got a movie of the week.

Plus, not just some very bizarre government defendants, but also some very sympathetic and impressive potential plaintiffs. Contreras took a severe beating in the KW case (did he ever take that remedial law class?), but if this case gets off the ground it could make that one look like a stubbed toe for him.
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Proposed class action vs. ODA

Lerner Well-Known Member

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Proposed class action vs. ODA

Lerner Well-Known Member

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