Jury rejects fraud claim against law school

Jury rejects fraud claim against law school by Gary Warth of The San Diego Union-Tribune

A San Diego Superior Court jury on Thursday disagreed with a former law student who claimed the Thomas Jefferson School of Law willfully misrepresented employment data to perspective students.

Anna Alaburda, who graduated near the top of her class in 2008, said she enrolled in the school after reading about the high employment rate of its graduates. She has never worked full-time as an attorney since her graduation, however, and her lawsuit questioned the accuracy of data presented by the school.

While the employment rate of graduates appeared in some rankings to be about the same as other law schools, Alaburta’s attorney during the trial said the school didn’t disclose that some of those graduates were working in book stores, restaurants, hair salons, and even selling tractors.

An attorney for the school rejected the claims and said Alaburda never proved them. The attorney also reminded jurors that she had turned down a job offer, and that many Thomas Jefferson alumni have had successful careers.

Alaburda is not alone in complaining that she enrolled in a law school after reading misleading information about the employment success of graduates. Hers was among 15 suits filed by graduates with similar complaints across the country.

In other cases, judges rejected requests to grant class-action status to the lawsuits or rejected the cases after saying the students were sophisticated enough to know about the job market themselves.

Alaburda sought $92,192 in lost income and $32,475 in reimbursement of tuition and fees.

Read the entire article here.

New way to reserve study rooms

Beginning on Monday, March 21, 2016, the Thomas Jefferson School of Law Library will be using LibCal for study room reservations.

What is LibCal?

LibCal is an online program that will allow students to reserve study rooms by logging onto LibCal, entering in their student information, and reserving a study room of their choice. Convenient features include mobile bookings with built-in QR codes, auto-confirmation or mediate bookings, and remote booking through the website. To utilize the QR code feature, download any QR code scanner app and install the app onto your smart phone. The QR code scanners work on both android and Apple phones.

To Reserve a Library Study Room:

Go directly to http://studyrooms.tjsl.edu or scan the QR code. Click “Book a Room”. Choose your time slot. Fill out the booking form completely. Confirm or cancel your reservation via the confirmation email sent to you. After confirming, you will receive an email with a calendar appointment you can add to your personal calendar.

 

• Rooms may only be reserved and used by Thomas Jefferson School of Law students and alumni. Alumni may only reserve rooms for bar study.

• You must use your tjsl.edu email address to make a reservation and reservations must be confirmed by email.
• Individuals can reserve a maximum of four hours (four 60-minute time slots) in any given day; the four 60-minute time slots do NOT need to be consecutive; BUT separate reservations must be made for each non-consecutive time period. Reservations can only be made on the same day as the room use.

• A room reservation expires fifteen minutes after the beginning of the time requested. After this time, if the reserving party has not arrived, the room may be reserved by others.

• Reservations are necessary to assure room availability. Rooms may be used without reservation if unoccupied, but users MUST yield the room to someone with a valid reservation.

• You MUST leave the study room when your reservation ends if it has been reserved by someone else.

• Upon leaving, students/alumni are required to remove all items brought into a study room and return any chairs brought in to their original location.

• Do NOT leave personal belongings in study rooms. Belongings left unattended in an unreserved room or after the reservation period are subject to removal by staff. The library assumes no liability for lost or stolen items left in the study rooms or anywhere in the library.

• Noise MUST be kept to a minimum. Study rooms are not soundproof.

• Food is allowed as long as it is not messy, smelly, or noisy. Drinks are allowed in spill-proof containers. All trash must be placed in trash/recycling bins.

• Courtesy and civility in the use and yielding of the rooms to others is required.

• Reserving rooms under another student’s name is prohibited and is a violation of the honor code. Any student taking such action will be subject to discipline.

• If the rules set forth above are not followed, your reservation will be deleted by staff and made available to others. Library staff reserves the right to reassign individuals/groups to another room.