On Wednesday, a case was thrown out of court by an Illinois judge that involved nine DePaul University College of Law graduates. The lawsuit was filed against the school because of a weak job market for the law industry. The graduates involved in the lawsuit were enrolled at the school between the years of 2003 and 2008. The lawsuit alleged that DePaul published misleading data about the job market.
The lawsuit went as far as to say that DePaul, when discussing how many of its graduates had jobs, it failed to provide details regarding the job. For instance, is it a full-time job and does it require a law degree? As part of the lawsuit the students were asking for unspecified damages and reimbursement for their tuition. The lawsuit was claiming that DePaul committed consumer fraud and common law fraud.
The judge who ruled in favor of the school was Cook County Circuit Judge Neil Cohen. The ruling was issued Wednesday and was 11 pages long. Cohen said in the ruling that it is not the fault of the university that the graduates were issued diplomas at “the height of a tumultuous and deep recession that seriously affected employment in the legal profession.”
The graduates from the lawsuit are not going to let this ruling defeat them though. A lawyer representing the plaintiffs said that the ruling “should be appealed and will be.”