How We Can Help You
At the Education Rights Group, c/o The Bach Law Firm, LLC, we pride ourselves on being transparent with clients about the processes, and cost, of our services. We are a boutique firm that has many years of experience and success within the education law space. Our client manager is quick to respond to all communication. Given the attorneys’ schedule, we ask that all clients allow 48 hours for non-urgent responses when asking legal questions. Our team is fully aware of the acute anxiety that our clients are often experiencing, which is why we make transparency our priority.
The most common services we provide are described below.
Consultation
Once our team has reviewed your contact form and made the determination that it is a case we may be able to assist with, someone from our team will contact you via email to schedule and provide details about a consultation, including our consultation fee. If you ask to move forward, we will send a confirmation email with instructions on submitting documentation and payment.
Please note: It is important that you have a timeline of events and all supporting documents saved as individual files, in .pdf or Word format.
Demand Process
Our office is able provide this service in most states throughout the country for higher education students with issues involving federal law. Faced with a potential civil lawsuit, many schools will often choose to avoid litigation whenever possible, as a lawsuit can be both time-consuming and expensive to defend. Our team implements a pre-litigation, demand process to try to convince your adversary to avoid the expense of courtroom defense and reach an amicable resolution of your issues in a shorter amount of time than litigation would take.
A demand process consists of our team drafting an extensive letter – often several pages in length –detailing exactly what arguments you could assert in the event you chose to escalate your claims, and writing response letters until we reach an agreement or come to an impasse. The purpose of the demand letter is to demonstrate that if you needed to initiate a lawsuit, you could, and that your claims are well-grounded in the law and likely to succeed in court. Many of our clients have reached successful resolutions through the demand process without ever having to step into a courtroom. However, it is important to remember this process is not litigation – it is an attempt to settle through negotiation and that means the client must know their negotiables and non-negotiables. If a client enters this process without the spirit of negotiation, there is a higher probability of not settling and client dissatisfaction.
Once you decide to hire our team for the demand process and our office receives your retainer fee and signed retention documents, our team will begin to research your issues. It can take up to 10 business days (sometimes more depending on the complexity of your matter) to have a draft demand letter ready for your review and approval. Only when all edits have been made and our office has your final approval will we send the letter to your adversary.
Once the other side has completed their investigation and we have received a written response, our staff will forward the response letter to you for your review. We will ask that you submit your thoughts and evidence in writing for our team to incorporate into our response letter. If we do not receive a response to the initial demand letter within a reasonable time, we will send a follow-up letter asking for an update.
The retainer for a demand process does not provide for any set number of letters or contacts; we will continue to engage with your adversary as long as negotiations are progressing. If we come to an impasse and are not able to resolve the matter, our attorneys will conduct a case review and discuss your options with you.
Pre-Litigation Review
This is the phase in which the case has come to an impasse within the demand process, and the client is considering moving to litigation. Our team carefully reviews the evidence gathered during the demand process and provides you with candid details about the strengths and weaknesses of your potential claims and the likelihood of success in litigation, including surviving a motion by the other side to dismiss your case. Such a motion is usually made by a defendant shortly after receiving the complaint, and before engaging in further legal proceedings, arguing to the judge that your case should be dismissed. No jury is involved, and the asserted reasons for the requested dismissal can vary greatly. If the case is ripe for litigation, we will require a new retention agreement and initial retainer fee before work can commence. The demand process is pre-litigation service that we are retained for separate from litigation. The demand process retainer is a flat fee that is not applied toward the litigation retainer.
Appeals
Our office does not write student appeals. However, our attorneys can review and provide comments to your draft appeal before you submit it to the university, per their policies, and we can enter the demand process simultaneously. It is critical that you are aware of appeal deadlines and that you submit your draft appeal to us with sufficient time for our review taking into consideration our attorneys’ schedule. It is vital that all students carefully follow the school’s policies regarding deadlines to ensure that all appropriate steps for resolution have been taken in a timely manner.
Litigation
When you have suffered a legal wrong, you are often entitled to bring an action in civil court for relief. Civil litigation is the process of resolving private disputes through the court system. Before our team drafts a complaint, you will be asked to submit a list of any witnesses that may be willing to provide a statement in support of your case, including contact information and a brief summary of what each witness will be speaking to. You will also be asked for any additional documents not already received by our office. The next step would be for our attorney to draft a complaint and file it with the court to initiate your lawsuit. Many externalities that are unique to each case contribute to the amount of time that may elapse between drafting a complaint and filing it. Filing the case is just the first step. Litigation involves many steps, which may include, but not be limited to, a motion to dismiss, discovery, summary judgment, and, ultimately, trial. Mediation and other efforts to reach a settlement can occur at any point.
Our office requires an initial retainer for litigation that is billed against on an hourly basis and must be replenished periodically. In any type of litigation matter, we cannot guarantee the amount that will be necessary to complete a case. When you retain our office, you pay an initial retainer that goes into our client trust account. When work is performed by our office on your matter, the time spent multiplied by the timekeeper’s hourly rate are deducted from your retainer funds on account as earned fees. Costs incurred on your behalf, if any, are also deducted from your retainer funds on account. Some matters resolve shortly after they are filed, and those cases have the lowest total attorney’s fees. If the case does not settle or resolve early in the process, you can expect to have to replenish the retainer approximately every 3 months on average. Periods of sustained activity, such as discovery or drafting briefs, may require more frequent replenishment.
Mr. Bach is admitted in Texas, Nevada, the District of Columbia, the United States District Court for the District of Nevada and numerous U.S. District Courts, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and a number of other U.S. Courts of Appeals, and the United States Supreme Court. If we are retained for litigation and the complaint is to be filed outside of one of these jurisdictions, we will work with local counsel as required by their rules of practice.
If you wish to move forward with litigation, you can email us information about your case and we will review it and reply. You can also reach us by phone at 800-580-9167.