Jacksonville-based Florida Coastal School of Law has filed a motion to dismiss a class action suit that alleges the local law school has manipulated and misrepresented its postgraduate employment statistics.
The suit has been moved from state court and assigned to U.S. District Judge Marcia Cooke in the U.S. District Court in the Southern District of Florida Miami Division.
Florida Coastal asks that it be moved to the Middle District, which includes the Jacksonville Division.
“Florida Coastal School of Law has removed to federal court from state court the lawsuit claiming students were misled by the school’s postgraduation employment statistics we submit annually for publication,” said Peter Goplerud, Florida Coastal dean and professor, in a statement.
“Most recently, Coastal Law has asked the federal court to dismiss the lawsuit as meritless, and we have requested, in the alternative, it be moved to the appropriate venue in the federal Middle District of Florida,” he said.
“As we have assured our students, faculty, staff and alumni from day one, Florida Coastal School of Law is extremely confident and stands behind the integrity of the postgraduate employment information we submit annually for publication to the American Bar Association and others. Our data is well-researched and thoroughly vetted, and we will continue to vigorously defend ourselves against these baseless allegations,” said Goplerud.
The class action against Florida Coastal is one of 14 filed against law schools across the country through the New York law firms Strauss Law and The Law Offices of David Anziska.
They claim the suits will bring more transparency to the reporting of employment statistics by the law schools.
The other law schools with suits against them include New York Law School; Thomas M. Cooley Law School; Albany Law School; Brooklyn Law School; Maurice A. Dean School of Law at Hofstra University; Widener University School of Law; ITT Chicago-Kent College of Law; DePaul University School of Law; John Marshall School of Law (Chicago); California Western School of Law; Golden State University School of Law; Southwestern Law School; and University of San Francisco School of Law.
The suit against Florida Coastal was filed on behalf of former students Taylor Casey, Audra Awai, Clifford Klein, Joycelyn Stinson, Melissa Shipman and Amy Kisz.
The original suit was filed Feb. 1 in Florida’s 11th Circuit in Miami-Dade County.
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