NEWS ITEM

Lawsuit filed by California State University Students to Challenge Fee Increases

Suit Alleges that Billing Students For Additional Fees for Fall 2009 Term is a Breach of Contract

July 31, 2009 -- Students at California State University brought suit today in San Francisco Superior Court, alleging that the University's decision to increase fees for the Fall 2009 term on the eve of classes, having already billed students for the term, is a breach of contract.

On July 21, 2009, the University voted to impose a 20 percent increase in the State University Fee charged to every Cal State student at all 23 campuses, thereby impacting hundreds of thousands of students. Students are given as little as one week to pay the additional fees or face cancellation of their enrollment. These students already have been billed a specific price for the Fall 2009 that did not include these last-minute fee increases.

In addition to the system-wide fee increase, students in graduate business programs also are being asked to pay a substantial new fee, the Graduate Business Professional Fee -- $1,500 to $2,000 for full-time students for the Fall term alone -- that was not previously included in students' bills for the Fall 2009 term.

The plaintiffs seek to represent a class of undergraduate and graduate students throughout the Cal State system. The suit seeks refunds of the improperly charged fees.

Altshuler Berzon LLP and Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP are co-counsel for the Cal State students in the lawsuit. The same law firms represented students in Kashmiri v. Regents of the University of California, 156 Cal.App.4th 809 (2007), which held that a fee increase by the University of California was a breach of contract.

For more information about this lawsuit, or to discuss your rights as a Cal State student, please contact paralegal Jusztina Traum at 415-421-7151 or jtraum@altber.com.

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