Cooking Up a Culinary Class Action in Oregon

A lawsuit against Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon alleges that the institute overstated employment rates and the value of its culinary education. The suit has received class action status and could pave the way for hundreds of additional plaintiffs affected by the issue.

Cooking Up a Culinary Class Action in Oregon

Western Culinary Institute is owned by Career Education Corp. (CEC), an operator of 75 private schools around the country that prepare students to work in the culinary, medical and design fields, among others. The December 7 issue of the Oregonian reports that the majority of students fund their tuition with the help of student loans and grants, according to the latest quarterly report of the institution.

Many of those students cannot repay those loans while struggling in low-paying jobs.

Culinary students: "Do I really need this tuition, given the results?"

The problem—and the basis of the lawsuit—is that prospective students of the campus are not told prior to enrollment that their diploma would likely earn them only low-wage preparatory and line-cook jobs. The original plaintiff in the 2008 lawsuit, Jennifer Adams, alleges that 70 percent of Western's grads in 2007-2008 earn less than $22,500 per year, even though tuition can run as high as $41,000 for a full 60-week culinary and hospitality program.

Adams maintains that a salary of $22,500 per year could be secured without Western training and thus without the grants and loans needed to pay for their education. The lawsuit alleges that the school engages in fraud and unfair business practices.

Class-action status allows more potential plaintiffs

This week Judge Richard Baldwin of Multnomah County ruled that the lawsuit could be certified as a class action, potentially exposing the trade school to additional claims by hundreds of former students.

The Oregonian reports that CEC, Western's parent, is facing lawsuits alleging violations of consumer-protection laws by its California School of Culinary Arts Inc. and Sanford-Brown College Inc. in Illinois. A Georgia appeals court recently denied class-action certification in a lawsuit involving CEC's American InterContinental University Inc. CEC settled a lawsuit brought by six ex-students of Sanford-Brown in Missouri earlier this year.

Attorneys representing Western point out that the judge refused to allow other claims inferring that the school breached apparent contractual obligations to provide placement services as promised. Such a decision would have allowed several thousand additional claimants to join the action.

Cooking Up a Culinary Class Action in Oregon

CONSUMER FRAUD Legal Help

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