I need to Sue UC Berekely? Advice about doing this?

Parent Cafe
1

<p>Hi Parents! I'm not joking, I really do need to sue UCB. I think that many of you might have experience with these types of things and might have some advice you could offer me : ) I would be sincerely grateful.</p>

<p>I would like to sue UC Berkeley (specifically their associated student body's "associated students of UCB) in court but how do I sue a organization that is run by a senate of students?</p>

<p>In fall of 2007 and spring of 2008, I worked for UCB's Associated Student Run AS lecture notes organization. UCB associated lecture notes hires around 50 student each semester to take notes for classes which UCB associated students then sells to students who might have to miss a lecture for whatever reason, or becuase they are disabled, etc.</p>

<p>THe manager back then (has since changed) was not very organized. She lost my application for hire twice and my driver's license scanned copy twice. So, I was never officially hired, although she told me that was not a problem since I could turn in the paperwork at any time and then she would pay me. She kept losing stuff and leaving messages on my phone about asking me to re-turn in hire applications. The manager said during finals week that since forms were being lost I could just reapply that fall and she would backpay me since she still had all the records. Since this was a student run organization inside UCB, i believed her....</p>

<p>However, I unexpectedly left UCB to take classes at CC in order to transfer to a different major not offered at UCB. During that time I called the lecture notes organization and the manager said that she would pay me when I came back at UCB to be a student since only students could be hired and paid for backpay, etc within their organization. However, I never came back to UCB--I suddently gained admission to a different college and ended up there instead. I was never paid the 1,500 that the Student Run organization was supposed to pay me for taking notes for them.</p>

<p>They have also been uncooperative in trying to help me get backpay. This is becuase they claim that they can't pay me since they would need to hire me first in order to give me any backpay, and they can't rehire me in order to backpay me b/c the position needs to be a UC B student and the system has no mechanism to hire me since I'm now ineligble.</p>

<p>Also, they told me I can't file for damages claim becuase I was not a staff or faculty member.</p>

<p>I called the UCB ombudsman dispute office and was told to file a small claims court case against them</p>

<p>BUt here's the problem!</p>

<p>THey have since thrown away half of their records from fall 2007 indicating my work. So, For one class I took notes for them for, they have NO records whatsoever---thus I can't prove that I took notes for them! (although I have some scratches of records on my computer i believe but they are in no way complete i don't believe) To make matters worse the manager left too! The new manager has no clue.</p>

<p>How can I even sue them in small claims? The government website for small claims says that you need to file within 45 days for government however, it has already been 2.5 years.</p>

<p>Do you parents have any advice to help me win my case??? I live in Los Angelos now too, so would I have to drive up to Berkeley for the court case?</p>

<p>I don't know anybody whose ever done this before....</p>

<p>Would this UCB associated students organization even be considered a government agency?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.asuc.org/newsite/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.asuc.org/newsite/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p><a href="https://lecturenotes.berkeley.edu/LN_Content.aspx?dir=67%5B/url%5D"&gt;https://lecturenotes.berkeley.edu/LN_Content.aspx?dir=67&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

2

<p>I’ll let the attorneys on the board respond on the merits and feasibility of your case, but in my opinion it would take more than the promise of MAYBE getting $1500 to go through all the hassle of a lawsuit. Sometimes it’s better to just take your loss and go live in peace rather than poison your life with legal wranglings and proceedings. Did you ever read Bleak House by Charles Dickens?</p>

3

<p>You can start with a formal demand letter, sent by registered mail.
The letter should include all of the relevant facts and whatever documentation you have.
Clearly state the amount you feel is owed to you and the basis for that claim.
Include a deadline for response, giving them a reasonable amount of time.
Make sure you include current contact information.</p>

<p>If that is not successful, you have to ask yourself if it is worth it to pursue this case. This is a relatively small dollar amount and it will cost you time, effort and money to chase after this claim.</p>

4

<p>If it has already been 2 years and you have nothing in writing to substantiate the agreement, you are probably outside the statute of limitations and it is too late to sue.</p>

<p>The type of lawsuit you are talking about one brought on “common counts” - but because the agreement was oral, the statute of limitations to bring the action is two years. In any event, you would still need some kind of records of your own to document the number of hours you worked and/or the actual work you produced – when you sue, you have the burden of proof.</p>

<p>I’m sorry – it sounds like you really were cheated out of money you were owed. However, these things do happen – in the future, try to get all agreements in writing and if you aren’t paid as promised for a service, by all means stop working until you are paid. You’ll have to take this as a learning experience. Obviously an expensive one – but at least you will know how to protect your rights in the future.</p>

5

<p>Ah, OP, I fear you have just learned one of life’s hard lessons: make sure the paperwork’s in order (yours AND theirs) before beginning work. Document thoroughly, keep copies (dated) of all work submitted, and, for heaven’s sake, don’t keep providing work on an ongoing basis when you haven’t yet been paid for earlier work.</p>

<p>I am really sorry this happened to you, and I know $1500 seems like a lot of money to you at this point, but my advice is to chalk it up to experience in the school-of-hard-knocks, and move on.</p>

<p>I think your cost (time, money, aggravation) in pursuing this would be very high, and I don’t have much confidence you could win.</p>

6

<p>I am not an attorney but this sounds like an employer-employee relationship. Idk how things work in CA, but in NY the Dept of Labor pursues cases of unpaid wages. I would gather together whatever documentation you have and start with them!</p>

7

<p>Frankly, it sounds like your manager was pocketing quite a bit of money intended for other people. You can’t believe that you can count on anyone to verify an oral agreement from almost three years ago. While you sound like a sympathetic victim, that’s not the basis for a legal decision when you could have had a formal agreement and gotten paid in the normal manner. Sorry, but you were taken advantage of by someone much like a con artisit.</p>

8

<p>sk8rmom, the statute of limitations for a wage claim via the appropriate California Dept would still be the same – 2 years on an oral contract – see [How</a> to file a wage claim](<a href=“http://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/howtofilewageclaim.htm]How”>Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE)) “A claim based on an oral agreement must be filed within two years from the date the claim arose.” </p>

<p>The problem is that the people who ran the agency during the school year 2007-2008 are long since gone – there is not going to be anyone there who remembers OP or who can affirm his claim that he submitted work. The reason there is a statute of limitations is that when so much time goes by, it gets hard for anything to be proven one way or another. I mean-- what does the current manager do if someone shows up claiming he did work and was promised money back in fall of 2007? </p>

<p>I checked the agency in question - <a href=“https://lecturenotes.berkeley.edu/LN_Content.aspx?dir=67[/url]”>https://lecturenotes.berkeley.edu/LN_Content.aspx?dir=67&lt;/a&gt; - and their home page reports:</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>There is also a set of very specific requirements for note-takers – the notetakers must commit to attend every class in a course, they must be students who have already taken the course and earned an A, they must submit notes by 10pm the same day of the class, and they must do their own marketing for subscriptions to the class, to ensure an adequate number of subscriptions. </p>

<p>We’ve heard OP’s side of the story… but what about the other side? Did she submit the notes on timely basis? Were there an adequate number of subscribers to the courses she audited? The agency maintains archives of notes going back to <a href=“https://lecturenotes.berkeley.edu/LN_Courses.aspx?dir=81&cif=2[/url]”>https://lecturenotes.berkeley.edu/LN_Courses.aspx?dir=81&cif=2&lt;/a&gt; – so it would be a fairly easy task for her to find the classes she took notes for. (One thing that she COULD do would be to find those classes and write a demand letter asking that ASUC cease and desist from selling those particular archived notes – if they didn’t pay for the notes, they don’t own them, so they can’t sell them – that wouldn’t get OP the money she wants, but it might get some sort of dialog going).</p>

<p>I do have to say that I am a little bit skeptical because of OP’s sloppiness in maintaining her own records – I’m thinking that a student with the organizational skills to submit a high quality set of notes for each class on a regular basis would have kept better records than OP says she has, given that OP knew early on that she wasn’t getting the money she had been promised for her work. I mean – I’ve known a lot of youngsters who are sloppy about tracking their hours at a job at first, but the first time they get a paycheck for 15 hours of work during a pay period that they are sure they worked 17… they start keeping their own diaries and copies of time sheets. OP would have us believe that she went two full semesters without getting paid – and it never occurred to her to keep a copy of her notes or other records.</p>

<p>I’m wondering if the real story is that OP’s paperwork was “lost” because the agency never wanted to hire her and was trying to brush her off – and that she somehow didn’t understand that she was being given a set of weak excuses from a manager who didn’t have the guts to say no to her outright.</p>

9

<p>Sounds like a great lesson learned at a great university. Sometimes in life you get screwed. This might be one of them. I bet you are a lot smarter now and can take what you have learned to your next job. Seriously, that may be worth more than $1500.</p>

10

<p>I’m pulling this out of my ass, but…</p>

<p>Voice your story out there. See if anyone will listen. Make sure somehow Berkeley knows you’re doing it, ask a lawyer if you’d be at risk for any slander suit or anything like that, make sure you aren’t, and keep going. I imagine that’s more effective than actually sueing.</p>

11

<p>Everyone is making this so difficult- this amount goes to small Claims court- you can file online for goodness sakes. The court is the same as traffic court. They will first mediate and them if no agreement is made the Judge hears the case the same day and makes a decision. </p>

<p>Have all your ducks in a row- maybe go observe court before your date so you know what to expect and what approach works the best.</p>

<p>Do it if no other reason to “have your day in court” and it makes it easier to let it go. But, UCB might just decide the cheapest thing t do is pay you the 1500.00 and be done with it,</p>

<p>One caution, be very thoughtful and deliberate when you file the claim and explain your grievance. Use facts, have proof of note etc…</p>

<p>You will be fine.</p>

12

<p>You were never officially hired. They don’t have any record of you submitting an application for the position. It wouldn’t make any sense for someone to pay “back pay” to someone who was not officially hired and not on the payroll for that specific timeframe. I’m wondering if there was a miscommunication on the OP’s part regarding the entire situation.</p>

<p>There are too many holes in the OP’s story. My suggestion is for the OP to chalk this up to a “learning experience” and move on. It’s time for the OP to let go of the old school and focus on the new school.</p>

13

<p>Re post #11: the statute of limitations applies in small claims court as well as anywhere else. (No “online” filing available that I can see). OP would have to pay a filing fee in Alameda county, file on paper, pay whatever costs were associated with serving the proper parties, and show up in court at the designated time. At that time, whether or not anyone from Associated Students at Berkeley showed up to contest the claim, the most likely outcome is that the Judge would throw the case out because of the delay in filing.</p>

14

<p>Note:</p>

<p>The OP SallyBee also has started the following threads:</p>

<ul>
<li><p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/909557-getting-full-amount-stafford-loan-refunded-back.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/financial-aid-scholarships/909557-getting-full-amount-stafford-loan-refunded-back.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
<li><p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/910658-scammed-credit-report-credit-destroyed-medical-secretarys-accident.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/910658-scammed-credit-report-credit-destroyed-medical-secretarys-accident.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
<li><p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/910663-medical-secretarys-accident-ruined-me-my-mothers-credit-what-do.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/910663-medical-secretarys-accident-ruined-me-my-mothers-credit-what-do.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
<li><p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/909558-getting-stafford-loan-personal-expenses-medical.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-life/909558-getting-stafford-loan-personal-expenses-medical.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
<li><p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-confidential-cafe/909556-using-stafford-loan-pay-experimental-medical-expenses.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/college-confidential-cafe/909556-using-stafford-loan-pay-experimental-medical-expenses.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
<li><p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/909555-logistics-using-stafford-loan-medical-expenses.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/909555-logistics-using-stafford-loan-medical-expenses.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
</ul>

<p>She’s either a ■■■■■ or a would-be con artist in search of a scam that might work.</p>

<p>Cashing out her Stafford Loans to use for personal expenses hasn’t worked. Applying for a credit card didn’t work. Now it looks like she’s got the idea that she can file a fake claim for unpaid wages against Berkeley. </p>

<p>The one thing she has figured out is that if she comes up with some hare-brained scheme for raising cash, someone on Parent Cafe is sure to give her friendly tips on how to go about doing it.</p>

15

<p>OP. Everyone learns a lesson. Every time there’s a transaction between two parties, whether it’s for an item or paycheck, both parties need to have their own copies in order for things to happen after the fact.</p>

<p>If you lost a receipt for your $500 laptop and your laptop breaks down and you know it hasn’t even been a year, the company’s going to ask for the receipt or proof of payment. And you don’t have a receipt. Yes, you can track down the store but that’s going to be a huge hassle but… then again, they’re going to want proof from you too. What are you going to do? Chalk it up and consider it a learning experience, and of course, get a new laptop… and keep the receipt in a safe place!</p>

<p>Thankfully we do have credit card bills back-ups. But we do not have a system in place when it comes to employment. This is a “transaction” between the employer and employee. Surely you’ve studied a little bit of labor unions when you studied American history where you read that union members actually documented every abuse or violation at workplace and worked with employers to draw up contracts that satisfied both parties. Union members kept their own copies and brought them with them when they wanted to complain. If you don’t have your documentations, you’re basically screwed. UCB has only so much room in their mailboxes that it has to delete e-mails after a certain period. As others have posted, two years is awfully a long time for things not to happen.</p>

<p>Really, what are you going to gain after paying the lawyer fees and other associated fees by bringing UCB to a small claims court? You’d end up using all of that $1,500 anyway.</p>

<p>And this experimental surgery? It’ll happen one day but just not now. Not worth trying to get those Stafford loans to pay for them, especially if you don’t have a plan to pay off those loans ASAP when you’re out of school.</p>

16

<p>OP- did you ever fill out an I-9? This is the form that employers must file to prove that you are “eligible to work in the United States”, i.e. are either native born, have a Green Card, or have one of various visas (not tourist or not here illegally) which allow you to earn money.</p>

<p>If you didn’t- you were not an employee. simple as that. Even for student employment, the employee needs to produce a passport, a valid visa, a birth certificate, to prove their ability to work in the US. </p>

<p>You do not have standing to sue for back wages if you were never employed. The lost “scanned driver’s license” is not a valid proxy for an I-9; a driver’s license can be used in some states I believe… but it is the documentation used to file the I-9 and is not in and of itself proof that you were employed.</p>

<p>Life’s lesson for you. Move on, keep good records, get it in writing, and get past this.</p>

17

<p>I’m with calmom. Something’s very fishy about the OP.</p>