We just received a letter from Robert Green who is a leading, class action lawyer of national significance. His email was in reference to the last post on this blog about why students have decided to stay away from the Belford lawsuit. Being a legal professional and a class action practitioner of the highest order, he has a thing or two to say about how Googasian has proceeded with his class actions so far specifically the last class action that came to conclusion under Googasian’s lead; namely the Court Reporting School case. I think his letter is significant enough to be reproduced as is.  I am going to let him take over now;

“Hi, you might not know me, but then you may. I won’t shy away from admitting that over the last three decades of legal practice, specifically in the area of class action lawsuits, I’ve built something of a name for myself. In some circles, they call me the Wichita Cheetah; never mind that I left my place of birth for greener pastures in the first decade of life and have never been back, others have been heard referring to me as The Shark. But it’s ok; I take it all as a compliment, a testament to the competitive spirit that drives me and to my expertise as a legal professional.

But enough about me. I wanted to write to you about this group of jokers the Googasian P.C. ever since you started this blog. I was approached by one of his former clients through an acquaintance of mine about three years ago. Googasian had filed a case against the Court Reporting School back then; this was his first foray into class action. Yup that’s true, contrary to what you’ve been specifying on this blog, Googasian isn’t really a class action veteran. His expertise is in other areas of law, class actions are uncharted territory for him, for the most part.

So, this friend of a friend, who was a former student of the Court Reporting School had been approached by Googasian to join his class action lawsuit. Since I am the go to guy for class actions, he was referred to me for advice. I took a looksy at the case and immediately knew that this was a lost cause. The attorney (Googasian) had little to no direct class action experience and although the runaway school had promised their pupils jobs, they could only be held liable for the fee, at most. In class action world this was one for the shitters. No experience class action lawyer would have touched this, but Googasian was not (and is not) an experience class action lawyer.

See, class action is dirty business. You get your hands in the muck and most times you come out with nothing but dry dirt. Most class action lawsuit never go to trial. If they even take off, the chances of success are minimal. Minimal. Juries can usually distinguish between respect for law, and greed for money and that’s where the cases usually fall apart. So, with the cards stacked against “the people” so monumentally, what is it that even makes the practice of class action lawsuit a viable career? I’ll give you three words.

“Damage to reputation”.

That’s it. Nothing else balances the risk for the plaintiff. You can put a value on the productive capacity of an individual and the only reasonable number you can come off with would be finite. With less than 0.1 percent chances of success, the only thing that can make class actions profitable for plaintiffs is damage to an intangible property. You can put any value on your reputation now can’t you? You ask for a ridiculous hundred million, and with a 0.1 percent chance of success, your potential benefit comes out to be about $ 10,000. That is worth it. Less than ten thousand dollar is not worth the hassle, and the risk that getting involved in a class action exposes one to.

Now, here’s the thing, class action lawyers do not expose their clients to this risk.

Noobs like Googasian do. Those who have been practicing class action for any given length of time do not. They know it’s pointless, they know it will kill their reputation, and their career. People like Googasian do not care.

I told the friend of my friend to stay away from the case. The reason Googasian was going into this was to pick up a few bucks on virtually zero investment. There was no way the plaintiffs could get anything meaningful out of this.

He didn’t take my advice and joined the case because Googasian told him there was no risk for him and it would require virtually nothing from him.

Next time a class action lawyer tells you that, tell him to get lost. No class action lawyer worth his salts would tell a client that the case involves no risk for them. Every time you sign a piece of paper you take up new risks; all lawyers know that.

The Court Reporting lawsuit carried the following risks for plaintiffs.

1)      If they had been legitimately bereaved they lost their right to pursue legal action through other avenues.

2)      They could be countersued for libel or a number of other reasons. It happens all the time.

Also, the time and effort involved in completing the paperwork is by no means small.

So my acquaintance went ahead and joined the case. Googasian went on to win the case as the court reporting school was clearly in the wrong. Googasian made an estimated more than 2 million dollars. What did my friend get? Well this.

http://www.courtreportingfaqs.com/

He basically spent more than one week accumulated man hours completing the paper work and then was even robbed off the complete fee that he had paid. Googasian rigged it to make sure that his fee was paid in full, whether the plaintiffs got their money back or not.

When he later tried to file another lawsuit claiming to get at least his full fee back, he was told he can’t do it, because he had already been dealt with as part of the “class” by the legal system. He’d lost his right to the claim.

He filed an objection to the ruling but his objection was rejected by the court.

In the end the students (not all of them) only got about one third of their fee back. About $10,000.

This is why I think the Belford case is even more ridiculous. I think the Belford fee was something of the order of a couple of hundred dollars. Even if the students get ALL of it back (highly unlikely) it’s still not worth the trouble.

There are of course other loopholes in the Belford case which you’ve pointed out on your blog from time to time and which I quite agree with. If Belford is a foreign entity and if it is clearly specified in their terms of service, this lawsuit is a dud. Googasian’s incompetence has also been proven in the Computer Training institute case where also, the plaintiffs are yet to get a dime.

I am writing this email, because having a reputation as one of the legal granddaddies in the area of class actions, I feel Googasian is a novice infringing on some sacred territory unwashed. Class action has got much bad reputation over the last few years because of opportunists like Googasian. I want to make sure that that has been registered and I want to warn people to stay away from charlatans like him. Thanks for your blog.”

“The preamble to the Class Action Fairness Act stated that… class actions harmed class members with legitimate claims and… undermined public respect for the country’s judicial system.”

This is of course no coincidence. Just think of a typical legal shark; the individual who’d come to your mind would be an ambulance chaser; a class action expert so to speak. Class actions have earned a bad reputation, because it has been misused profusely.

Don’t get me wrong, Class action is a very important tool of justice when used properly.

The lawyers who are not that much qualified to find good jobs, this is the tool where people can easily start a civil action practice of their own. All it takes is a cheap office in an urban neighborhood with lots of less educated, malleable individual person walking around and an eagerness to make money off of other people’s loss.

We’ve discussed it before cases of exemplary abuses of class action on this blog as well. Just put, class action lawyers, In many cases do not charge their clients up front, expose their clients to significant risks of legal recourse, financial damage and possible custody. If case a class action lawsuit is dismissed, the defendant has the right to countersue. Because of this class action will a highly risky venture for the claimants.

No one from the usually smart Belford alumni community wants to join Googasian’s comedy of errors.

Belford has always complied with the legal terms and services and as far as the law is concerned this misdemeanor by Googasian would certainly have no impact on Belford.

This case can take a historic turn as courts don’t generally allow law firms the pleasure of serving notices through alternate means. The reason why courts refrain from this procedure is because this is just a pure waste of time. If there is no other way of finding a defendant except for email or chat, then this means that the defendant would most probably be extremely hard to implement any verdict against them. Civil injury lawyers neither waste their time on such desperate cases nor they go to such extreme ends because they know that the end result would not be fruitful for their clients and would be a sheer waste of time and resource.

However Googasian has finally managed to achieve a certain degree of pursuit. The sad thing is that the order given to Googasian to hound the defendant’s identity excluding any subpoenas with certainly lead to a disclosure of information that already is old information and has been specified on this blog time and again. Belford High School has no link with Michigan and if this fact is realized by the court than this means that geezer googasian is playing with his career and legal reputation.

So we can keep our fingers because when the dust settles this case is heading towards an end which is so comic that it cannot be even perceived on this blog.

Now let’s talk about the class action lawsuit Dean Googasian filed against Academy of Court Reporting in Clawson – a local school in Michigan offering court reporting certificates to its students by the end of their course, claiming that the certificates would secure their students decent jobs at the court.Dean Googasian filed a class action against the school and managed to gather about 1300 students and ultimately won the case, hence the settlement amount of $7.8 million for the tuition fee paid by the students participating in the class action.So far so good? Well, here comes the hitch. Dean Googasian very conveniently kept $2.5 million of the above mentioned amount to himself, dividing the rest of the amount among the participants.Yes, that obviously came up to barely one third of each of the student’s tuition fee. But of course the students felt taken for granted and played up by the clever attorney, Dean Googasian.

Therefore, three participant students filed objections to the settlement with the court.

Sylvia John of New Haven, who graduated from the academy in 2006 said after the hearing that she is dissatisfied with the settlement. “I was expecting more,” said John, who paid over $30,000 in tuition and has not been able to get work as a court reporter.Copyrighted Material

While on the one hand Dean Googasian is hell bent upon mending money at the expense of leading and world-renowned online universities like Belford (for details visit: http://www.googasian.org) and on the other hand a sixteen year old student from Germany – Chris (for details visit: http://www.chris-come-home.com/googasian.htm), Dean Googasian ALSO runs a charity foundation by the name of Googasian Family Foundation.

And yes you’ve guessed it right! The so-called foundation is too is as notorious as it gets like its parent organization – Googasian, what with no authentic records found as to where the charity fund is contributed to other than a few politicians and their campaigns.

Needless to say, the charity made to various politicians is of course for the mere political gains of Dean Googasian and his fellow attorneys at the firm.

Various organizations set up their sister concerns for the purpose of social welfare, when in fact the idea is to dodge taxation; it is very likely that the Googasian Family Foundation has too been founded with the aim of supporting tax evasion for the law firm.Now in the case of the famous Belford Lawsuit, clearly, Dean Googasian is a con artist who is steadfast in his devious schemes while conveniently filling his pockets without having to pay taxes on the black money he earns.

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As you are all aware, the notorious law firm Googasain P.C. has filed a lawsuit against the leading online university – Belford. Well, its just one of the infamous stories you’ve heard about the firm.

Yes there’s more and much worse. It’s about a young girl – Christine Fritsch, endearingly called Chris, from Germany who came all the way to the US to fulfill her dreams of higher studies and a sound career in the land of opportunities.Within a year in the US, Chris faced a terrible road accident right and to her bad luck, her case was filed at the ill-intentioned Googasian law firm.

A personal injury lawsuit was filed in the courts on behalf of Chris. Initially, Chris’s parents were involved and were called to America but when Googasian realized that Chris’s parents had every intention of taking Chris back to Germany, the parents were quietly removed from the case as if they didn’t even exist. Instead, the host family was nominated as Chris’ guardians without even informing Chris’ biological parents.

The elimination of Chris’ biological parents from the case legal proceedings was done just in time to negotiate a multimillion dollar settlement; no share of which went to either Chris or her biological parents. The major chunk of the money was kept by Googasian and his gang as part of their fee for the legal proceedings. The rest was distributed amongst Chris’ host family and the people who had to be paid off.

They’ve now made it so that Chris’ biological parents can’t even take her back home to Germany. She’s being held in the US because on her tragedy hinges the profits of Googasian and his gang. They are waiting for her to die so they can collect on the multimillion dollar lawsuit. And all Chris’ poor father can do is appeal using this website, hoping that somebody somewhere would hear him out.

Lawyers like Dean Googasian are really certified butchers to say the least.

Dean Googasian’s motion in relevance to the Belford Lawsuit has been dismissed by the court. Yes, just as expected by anyone having even the farthest knowledge of the laws, right from the very beginning.

What really were the components of the motion he presented, you ask? Now what I am going to tell you is going to either give you yet another generous laugh at Dean Googasian or totally shock you out of your mind!! Well, Dean Googasian has crossed the limits of ridiculousness lately, by pleading in front of the court to allow him the following proceedings, all equally far-fetched:

1. He has asked the court to officially email the authorities of Belford to appear in the court
2. He has asked the court to put up a notice on a self-fabricated website of his ( against Belford), in order to prompt the institution to come forth in the court
3. He has asked the court to put up a notice within the premises of the court to bring it to the knowledge of the defendants

How it turned out? None of the above was entertained by the court who stated that the lawyer is yet to present something ‘reasonably calculated’ against Belford and is unable to prove anything, except his own unforgivable degree of incompetence.

Next thing we know, the case itself, altogether would be outright dissolved by the court due to pretty much the apparent reason that to-date Dean Googasian has not been able to convince the court on serving a legal notice to the defendant. End of story.

Imagine, can you? Dean Googasian still has the nerves to go about expecting the stars despite being time and again met by failure, right from the beginning of having filed the Belford Lawsuit. Okay, we agree, winning is highly important to some people but losing your sanity in the process is simply not the way to go.

By continuing to act unreasonably and unjustifiably, Dean Googasian is only further cementing his newly (but rightfully so) earned disrespect in the legal fraternity, what with always coming up with painfully obvious baseless accusations that holds no ground, never did, never would.

What’s interesting is that while Belford has come out blame-less from this uncalled-for battle, on the contrary having won itself some major free publicity, Dean Googasian on the other hand is the one left with practically nothing but a further shrinking of the same pockets he wanted to fill in the first place, enormous negative publicity (thanks to Belford’s united alumni), distrust in its current clients and nil chance of earning any new ones for that matter.

You try to pull someone else down for your own personal profits and it comes back to kick you in the nuts. That’s just what’s been happening to Dean Googasian. After all the baseless accusations he’s devised and the malice he’s plotted against Belford, has in the end merely caught up to him.

All we can say now is that Dean Googasian is steadfast in ensuring that he never gets another reputable client again ever.

 Only last week Dean Googasian requested the court to issue a subpoena to Belford in order to disclose its identity, so obviously back then they were convinced that Belford does not function under US jurisdiction, but now they are back to square one, bringing up the same old accusation of Belford being situated in Texas.

 I cannot sell this enough! Dean Googasian is time and again proving to be nothing but a bunch of incompetent lawyers, ‘so –called’ at that.

Disclaimer:

“All trademarks mentioned herein belong to their respective owners”

Dean Googasian now declares that Belford High School is jeopardizing his reputation by means of such websites and is indirectly threatening the students who may intend to join the Belford Lawsuit class action. Dean Googasian proliferates that Belford High School has launched these websites for the purpose of defaming him without realizing even for a moment that the internet is after all a free medium accessible to everybody and most probably the websites in question are initiated by Belford’s alumni, other online educationists, individuals considering to pursue education and life experience based diplomas/degrees online or generally anyone interested in the education current trends.

The people contributing to such websites and discussing as to how students associated with the Belford Lawsuit class action maybe counter-sued are only showing their own perspective in relevance to the case, based on facts easily available on the internet – be it about Belford, Dean Googasian, or other relevant cases where they may have clearly witnessed this trend of seeing how only the attorneys walk out with heavy amounts of profit (in case of winning the case) or being counter-sued along with the innocent participants of the class action.

Dean Googasian sternly accusing his defendant in such a manner only further proves his incompetence in devising a case on such week grounds; just as earlier he blatantly ignored the high school’s Terms & Conditions given on its official site which clearly protects the defendant.

However it would amuse you to know that finally, Dean Googasian took notice of this loophole and now he states that Belford High School has only recently changed its Terms & Conditions in order to defend itself from the class action filed. I assure you that it is simply not true as I have found their Terms & Conditions to be the same ever since the commencement of the institution. Dean Googasian should therefore prove this accusation straight out by presenting dated ‘before’ & ‘after’ snapshots of the high school’s official website, precisely the Terms & Conditions webpage.

Dean Googasian has requested for subpoena to be issued to Belford by the court in order to disclose the identity of the authorities behind the high school. It is however clear that subpoena is only issued in case of copy infringement. The law firm could also pursue the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in order to file a notice of infringement in this regard. For more information see: http://www.google.com/dmca.html

The frustration in which Dean Googasian finds himself due to the Belford Lawsuit – getting to simply nowhere lucrative for him, has reduced him to nothing but bare laughing stock for all.

Disclaimer:

All trademarks mentioned herein belong to their respective owners

To make it simple for you let me list it down here as to why you should steer clear from approaching him as lately Dean Googaisan has:

1. Filed a class action lawsuit against Belford High School claiming that the online life experience based institution is involved in issuing ‘fake’ diplomas.

My point: Belford High School has been a leading life experience based online institution for a longtime now, rewarding individuals with certification as an academic equivalency having evaluated their prior /work life experience that qualify them for the high school diploma. Not at any point have Belford claimed to be ‘educating’ its students for its high school diploma. Also, it’s the responsibility of the individual to represent their credentials truthfully. Belford’s terms & conditions enlisted on their official website clearly state that incase of any misrepresentation, the degree will be ‘cancelled’. All information is submitted on oath and ‘pain of perjury’ as the degree then stands ‘null and void’ if one has misrepresented their credentials’ information.

Therefore holding Belford responsible for issuing ‘fake’ degrees is baseless. May I quote an interesting and similar case here that took place in 2006 and was filed by Mr. Paul McKenna against Daily mirror newspaper who called his degree ‘bogus’. For details read the relevant BBC article, visit: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/5223454.stm. In the year 1996, McKenna was awarded the doctoral degree PhD degree from LaSalle University (Louisiana) on completing a 70,000-word thesis on a study. In 2006 McKenna successfully sued the Daily Mirror for libel; over claims made by journalist Victor Lewis-Smith that McKenna obtained a “bogus degree” simply for money to intentionally deceive the public. McKenna won the case and significant damages. The court declared that Mr. McKenna was not dishonest and regardless of the quality of his earned degree, it would be unfair to write it off as ‘bogus’ and that any presumable lack of academic expertise of La Salle’ University does not suggest that its client has been dishonest about his rightfully earned credits based on his life experiences.

2. Stated that Belford is yet another “profit making online institution working in the US”.

My point: Belford is not even a US entity to begin with, so the case being filed in the courts of Michigan stands baseless when the defendant does not function under the US jurisdiction. How can a lawyer miss out on such a basic point? Shows his incompetence in his field, doesn’t it?

3. Can be accused of disrespecting the court under the sanction of Rule 11.

My point: The court can be offended that its time has been wasted and its sanctity taken for granted by the plaintiff which clearly intended to mislead the court.

4. Can be counter-sued by the defendant.

My point: The other most likely scenario would be where the court dissolves this class action as null and void and Belford decides to counter sue Dean Googasian, his firm and say even the students who were members of this class action. In that case, not only Dean Googaisan but Belford Alumni members would also have to pool in to the compensatory money amount that the high school claims in exchange to the defamation lodged and propagated against it.

Conclusion: Now that you can see how chances are lean for Dean Googasian to convince the court, supposedly even if the court accepts this class action as one eligible to be filed and considered for further proceedings and eventually wins against Belford, the students who may have been a part of this class action should not expect to get anything more than half of their diploma fees that merely comes up to $125 as in such a scenario, Dean Googasian would be the only one to benefit from this class action in terms of money charging hefty litigation fees, which is by far his ultimate intention behind the Belford lawsuit.