Law Humor

From today's Santa Clara County (CA) new-case report:

Katrina Petrini (in pro per) v. Doug Marcus aka Douglas Marcus; Chuck Marcus; Charles Marcus; Marcus Charles; National Law School Inc.; Does; No. 1-08-CV-107116 (filed 2/29/2008)

Fraud lawsuit. The defendants charged the plaintiff for classes that never took place at a school that never existed. $56,000.

In other news, someone paid $56,000 up front for law-school tuition without checking to see whether the school ever existed.

To be somewhat fair to Ms. Petrini (as you know, Lowering the Bar is firmly committed to the principle of somewhat-fairness), a "National Law School" does appear to have existed, sort of, in Santa Clara County at one point.  Though it has now been removed, it was previously listed as a registered correspondence law school on the state bar's website.  This particular national law school could be found in Room 305 at 228 Hamilton Avenue in Palo Alto. 

California allows graduates of unaccredited law schools to take the bar, subject to certain restrictions.  Some of these seem to have actual physical classrooms, but others are "correspondence law schools" that offer courses by mail or online.  The "National Law School" was one of the latter.  Few details are available about the lawsuit so far, partly because I am too cheap to pay for the download, but it sounds like the allegations are that the National Law School set up a website, collected tuition, and then moved its computer out of Room 305 and went to Mexico.

There is no shortage of law schools in California.  Thirty-eight of them that are actually accredited one way or another are listed on the bar's website.  But if those aren't your style, you can also try one of the others, such as the Newport (Beach) University School of Law (located in spacious Suite 103), the Larry H. Layton School of Law (in Acton, CA, "one block from the Antelope Valley Freeway at the Crown Valley Road exit") or the University of Honolulu School of Law, which, oddly, is in Modesto, California.

Link: Courthouse News (paid download)
Link: California State Bar's list of law schools