Can I Sue a Trade School or Job Training Program?

Problems with a trade school or educational program can cause real damage. You might have lost a big opportunity for your career and all the future wages you would have earned. Or, you might be facing thousands of dollars in debt for a fake certification that turned out to be a scam.

Legal action can help you recover financial losses and hold the institution accountable. This is true for both residential and non-residential education programs.

If a school or training program caused you harm because of misleading claims or deceptive practices, consider talking to a consumer protection attorney near you. If you experienced discrimination or harassment during enrollment or any part of the training process, you can talk to a civil rights lawyer for help understanding your rights.

Learn more about suing a trade school or job training program below:

• Types of Job Training and Technical Schools
• Discrimination Lawsuits Against Education Programs
• False Advertising and Fraud Lawsuits Against Schools
• Example Claim Against an Education Program
• Legal Remedies: What Can I Recover?

Types of Job Training and Technical Schools

You may have a claim against a school regardless of the type of program you applied to or attended. Programs may be residential, non-residential, or online.

Residential educational institutions can include boarding and college-prep schools, where you live and learn within the same school system. For example, unlike a public school or community college, a full-time private school may provide room and board to high school students to prepare them for higher education while also providing them with opportunities to become plumbers, electricians, or computer technicians. Living on a campus could introduce reasons for a lawsuit related to housing and residential life. 

Other types of job training programs may not require students to be in a residential setting, such as:

• Vocational schools (also known as trade schools or technical schools), or private education agencies that offer skills training for particular jobs
• Apprenticeship programs (some may offer job training as part of an education curriculum)
• Technology and IT Programs, Coding bootcamps
• Healthcare training programs
• Business certificates, like real estate licensing or bookkeeping

No matter what type of program you pursued, there are many laws that govern them. Schools can’t discriminate or make false promises to students. Yet, these are some of the most common disputes people have with training schools. You might also run into conflicts over paying tuition and other types of claims that aren’t described here. When in doubt, you can ask a lawyer whether a dispute is a legitimate cause for legal action.

Discrimination Lawsuits Against Education Programs

Federal law prohibits both private and public schools from discriminating against their students and employees. States have also enacted anti-discrimination laws to prevent unfair treatment.

Established under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) can investigate discrimination complaints relating to:

• Race, religion, color, national origin
• Sex, gender, and orientation
• Age, disability, and pregnancy

Similarly, the federal government’s Department of Education (as well as board of education bodies created under your local state laws) can enforce students’ civil rights against unlawful discrimination, including:

• Disability discrimination
• Gender identity and sex discrimination
• Race and national origin discrimination

For example, a school may fail to provide reasonable accommodations for tests to a student with disabilities. Or, a school might reject a student from enrollment on the basis of race. Students in these situations may have a claim for unlawful discrimination. You may be able to sue in state court as well as federal district court because discrimination also involves violations of your constitutional rights to equal protection under federal law.

Similarly, you could be a job applicant or employee of a job training program. If you faced a prejudiced hiring process or work environment, you may have an employment discrimination case. In these cases, the EEOC requires that you first file a discrimination charge prior to suing.

You will then receive a Notice of Right to Sue, which will give you just 90 days to file your lawsuit. A Notice of Right to Sue is not necessary for employment claims relating to:

• Age discrimination lawsuits (ADEA)
• Equal pay lawsuits (EPA)

False Advertising and Fraud Lawsuits Against Schools

One of the leading causes of the student loan crisis is deceptive educational programs that promise big returns to students who take on giant loans to fund their schooling. Some trade schools encourage their students to get large amounts of financial assistance, including federal funds, to pay for classes that promise them good jobs in the future.

Unfortunately, it’s all too common to hear complaints that a private for-profit job training school has ripped off its students. Some students have said that they were duped into paying large sums of money for worthless degrees that make it almost impossible for them to find work after graduation.

Some examples of controversies in recent years include:

• Corinthian Colleges
• ITT Technical Institute
• Education Corporation of America
• The University of Phoenix

If you feel like your education or job training program lied to you, there are many different kinds of lawsuits that you may be able to bring against them in court. Two common claims are false advertising and fraud. A breach of contract claim can also cover many types of disputes with a school.

False Advertising

False advertising claims under state law can vary, but the elements of a claim are generally similar to those under federal law. They require a showing that:

• A school made false or misleading statements about its services.
• The deception affected a large percentage of students who were the intended audience.
• The deception was material in influencing the students to pay for the school.
• The advertising or schooling was provided across various states.
• There was a likelihood of financial harm to the students of the school (even if they didn’t suffer any harm).

Fraud

Fraud claims can vary depending on state law as well, but in general, they involve:

• A promise or statement by the school which is false.
• The school intends on deceiving students using the statement.
• The students reasonably relied on the statement.
• The students suffered financial injury as a result of relying on it.

Breach of Contract

False advertising and fraud claims may also be part of a breach of contract lawsuit. In a breach of contract case, you have to show all the following points:

• The school had a valid contract with you (which may have been oral, written, implied, or express).
• They failed to perform their obligations under the contract, while you performed your obligations.
• You suffered harm as a result of the school’s behavior.

Example Claim Against an Education Program

It might be helpful to put this all together in an example that helps you understand how the law works in practice.

Let’s say a trade school offers an educational program to students who want to learn how to become plumbers. The board of directors of the school gets together and plots a scheme to make as much money as possible: the school starts advertising that it’s worth it to take out hundreds of thousands of dollars in student debt because its courses will help you become a millionaire plumber. Sure enough, the school starts raking in millions of dollars as more and more students sign up for the plumbing courses.

In reality, the courses offered by the school are so inadequate that no employer recognizes the degrees that the school gives out to its graduating students. But most of the students who participated in this career program believed the advertisements. They thought that, at worst, they’d be able to find living-wage jobs and pay back their student loans.

In this case, the students may be able to sue the school for false advertising and fraud. If it turns out that the school was also limiting its enrollment only to people of a certain religion or race, the students affected by the discrimination may also be able to sue the school for violating their civil rights.

Legal Remedies: What Can I Recover?

When you sue an educational institution, you can ask the court for relief to make you whole. The court can order the defendant (school or program) to pay you, the plaintiff.

Below is a list of common remedies:

• Injunctive Relief: An injunction is an order from a court compelling someone to stop doing something. For example, a court may be able to force a school to stop its discriminatory behavior by ending its prejudicial enrollment practices.
• Compensatory Damages: This includes everything from lost wages to lost work opportunities. You may also ask to be compensated for the money that you spent on your education based on the school’s false promises.
• Attorney’s Fees and Legal Costs: In some cases, after winning your lawsuit, a judge may order the defendant to pay for your attorney’s fees. They might also include court filing fees and other expenses related to your lawsuit.
• Punitive Damages: If you can show that a residential education or job training program intentionally deceived you, a court may award you extra damages to punish the wrongdoers and deter others from engaging in similar misconduct.

An Attorney Can Determine if You Should Sue a School or Training Program

Although the government might decide to criminally prosecute a deceptive school, chances are more likely that you would need to enforce your rights on your own. This is why having your own lawyer is very important.

You’ll also need to know which attorney is right for your case, such as:

• A civil rights lawyer can help you recover damages for discrimination and harassment that you may have suffered while attending a residential education and/or job training program.
• A consumer protection attorney can help you sue a school that made false or misleading promises to you about your job prospects after attending their technical training programs.
• An employment lawyer may also be helpful when you’re dealing with discrimination or harassment in the workplace, including as an employee of a residential education or job training program.

Some attorneys may practice in all of the areas above. Regardless, an experienced attorney can evaluate your situation, explain your legal options, and point you in a different direction if necessary.