Student litigation guide (original) (raw)
When considering which university and applying for a place...
* Read and keep and date carefully all literature (prospectuses, leaflets, syllabi, codes of conduct etc.), even literature that may at the time seem irrelevant; you never know what may become relevant later. Print out all contemporary website information, which may change. Take photocopies of all the letters you write and of all the completed forms you submit. Be as specific as possible about your and the institution's requirements and obligations.
* Make notes of, or even record, your telephone and other conversations with officials, remembering to write down not just what they say but what you say too, paying special attention to undertakings made, caveats, disclaimers, conditions etc.. Make notes of any interview or other exchange, preferably soon afterwards while your memory of it is still fresh. Try to remember important statements verbatim. If anything said seems ambiguous or uncertain, try to clarify it with the official at the time. After any meeting it is always advisable to write a letter confirming (what you take to have been) the meeting's upshot; this gives the other party a chance to correct any misunderstandings and, by corollary, later a problem if that chance is eschewed.
* If necessary, seek clarification of the institution's access, equal opportunities, disciplinary, examination and other policies (e.g. re flexibility of course assignments and results grading, dispute procedures, Visitor's remit, so forth). Find out about any student welfare schemes and if necessary consult the students' union.
* Clarify thoroughly the financial arrangements and sanctions - fee payment dates, penalties for lateness and instalment schemes. Enlist the institution's help in seeking all available grants, bursaries and scholarships. Be sure to keep academic payments (and any disputes that may arise concerning them) separate from those for your accommodation and other 'domestic' services. File all your receipts carefully.
During your course...
* If you become dissatisfied with any aspect of your teaching or supervision or the facilities provided, or feel that the institution is failing to honour its prospectus promises, lodge your objection in writing, albeit gently and diplomatically, at an early stage. While most problems may prove easily soluble by discreet negotiation, if things later go wrong it is always useful to be able to show that you registered your dissatisfaction when it first arose.
* If your complaint becomes serious (e.g. the subject of a formal grievance procedure), ensure that it doesn't 'go to sleep' due to delay or 'get lost' in the process (both common occurrences). Keep careful diary records of all stonewalling phonecalls, staff absences or delays due to illness, holidays and so forth. Follow any such procedure to the letter; your minor slips could later become the opposition's major loopholes.
* Always mind your temper and your language, keeping criticisms as moderate and non-personal as possible. No tirades, no abuse, they will only alienate potential allies in the 'governing body', which, always remember, is usually itself a hotbed of internecine rivalry and jealousy and could therefore prove to be a source of unexpected assistance.
* Try to get support from other students with similar complaints, and if possible endorsement by the students' union. Concerted action (e.g. campaigns or petitions bearing dozens or hundreds of signatures) is not only in itself worrying for the institution, but brings with it the threat of their worst fear - bad publicity.
* If contemplating approaches to local media, newspapers etc., be warned that publicity can: (a) cut both ways - you may find yourself being branded a troublesome crank or worse; and (b) damage, or even scupper, your legal case - e.g. if a court can be persuaded that you are using publicity as a weapon. At all costs, of course, avoid defamation, while carefully recording any arguably defamatory utterances that may be made by the opposition about you.
If you feel you were incompetently or unfairly examined or graded...
* If you have any circumstances (family problems, financial crisis, illness) that might contribute to poor results, be sure to register them before you sit your exams. Retrospective excuses will always look weak.
* Ask for a full explanation of how your assessment marks were arrived at. You are entitled to see your examiners' reports and comments on your work. Find out the procedural rules to which your examiners or assessment panel were subject and ask for confirmation that they were strictly observed.
* As the case law demonstrates, the courts are, understandably, extremely reluctant to get involved in overruling the academic judgments of higher education institutions. The only remote chance of their intervention is when there has been a clear breach of an examination procedure or some other kind of palpable irregularity. Even poor Iqbal Sandhu's claim failed.
If the institution's internal grievance procedure is exhausted, and you are not...
* Consider litigation only if you are: (a) advised by a lawyer who specialises in the field and has studied your evidence that it is a case for the law (rather than, say, the university Visitor - the usual recourse) and that you have at least a reasonable chance of success; (b) immensely rich or immensely legally aided - confirm your entitlement thoroughly with a trusted solicitor; (c) immensely patient; (d) immensely angry, but under control; and (e) resigned to failure.
* Even if you (and your partner, parents and friends) are satisfied that you are all of (a) to (e) above, decide not to pursue the matter but instead to get on with the rest of your life. Then try living with yourself for a few weeks.
* If after these few weeks the itch is still nagging, and you can see no rest of your life without first having a good scratch, read all the case law in the Akme student law library and think again.
* If the itch still will not subside, read The Remedy and think again, really hard.
* If the itch persists through all of this and you feel you have already gone halfway insane, go to law and good luck. Some day it will all be over and you can launch a website about it.
CLICK FOR:
THE MALCOLM vs. OXFORD UNIVERSITY CASE INDEXES: I (1984-92) AND II (2001-02)
THE OXBRIDGE COLLEGE ACCOUNTS INDEX OR OUP ACCOUNTS INDEX
THE SURPRISING TRUTH ABOUT OUP'S 'CHARITABLE STATUS'
THE HISTORY OF AKME AND OF THIS WEBSITE
THE AKME OXFORD CUTTINGS LIBRARY
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