{"id":777,"date":"2022-04-20T17:16:26","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T17:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/cpil-blog\/?p=777"},"modified":"2022-04-20T17:16:26","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T17:16:26","slug":"court-orders-for-profit-college-ashford-university-to-pay-over-22-million-in-civil-penalties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/cpil-blog\/2022\/04\/20\/court-orders-for-profit-college-ashford-university-to-pay-over-22-million-in-civil-penalties\/","title":{"rendered":"Court Orders For-Profit College, Ashford University, to Pay Over $22 Million in Civil Penalties"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>By Mackenzie McCoy<\/h3>\n<p>In <em>The People of the State of California v. Ashford University, <\/em>Case No. 37<strong>&#8211;<\/strong>2018<strong>&#8211;<\/strong>00046134<strong>&#8211;<\/strong>CU<strong>&#8211;<\/strong>MC<strong>&#8211;<\/strong>CTL (March 3, 2022), the San Diego County Superior Court <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1YMSloAbkEmddj-l5pmMKhbK0tvOY1bab\/view?usp=sharing\">held<\/a> that for-profit giant Ashford University violated the law by misleading students as to their potential career outcomes, cost of attendance and financial aid, the pace of degree programs, and transferability of credits to and from Ashford. On November 29, 2017, the California Attorney General filed <a href=\"https:\/\/perma.cc\/68DT-ZSQW\">suit<\/a> against Ashford University and the case proceeded to a bench trial on November 9, 2021. <em>[<a href=\"https:\/\/digital.sandiego.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=1088&amp;context=crlr\">23:2 CRLR 201-02<\/a>; <a href=\"https:\/\/digital.sandiego.edu\/cgi\/viewcontent.cgi?article=3114&amp;context=crlr\">27:1 CRLR 184<\/a>]<\/em> The state argued that Ashford University enrolled vulnerable students via an admissions department whose primary goal was to increase enrollment numbers by whatever means necessary. The state further argued that Defendants created a high-pressure environment for their employees, encouraging them to lie to prospective students in an effort to increase enrollment and mislead students in areas critical to their enrollment decision-making.<\/p>\n<p>The Court found that Defendants engaged in misrepresentations in 11 categories including: misleading students about their career opportunities in fields requiring licensure using Ashford degrees; misleading students about the cost of attendance, financial aid rules, and downplaying the student\u2019s potential debt; and misleading students about the pace and time commitments of courses required to obtain an Ashford degree. Evidence showed that Defendants not only knew about this deception and misrepresentation, but they also tolerated and promoted it.<\/p>\n<p>On March 3, 2022, the Court entered judgment in favor of the People of the State of California and ordered $22,375,282 in penalties against Defendants for the foregoing misrepresentations. The Court, however, denied the People\u2019s request for an injunction concerning Defendants\u2019 debt collection practices, finding insufficient evidence of ongoing misconduct.<\/p>\n<p>On March 28, 2022, Ashford filed a Notice of Intent to move for a new trial.<\/p>\n<a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-follow synved-social-size-32 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Follow us on Facebook\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/CPILUSD\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:32px;height:32px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Follow us on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-follow\" width=\"32\" height=\"32\" style=\"display: inline;width:32px;height:32px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/cpil-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/addons\/extra-icons\/image\/social\/circle\/64x64\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-follow synved-social-size-32 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Follow us on Twitter\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cpilusd\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:32px;height:32px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Follow us on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-follow\" width=\"32\" height=\"32\" style=\"display: inline;width:32px;height:32px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/cpil-blog\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/addons\/extra-icons\/image\/social\/circle\/64x64\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mackenzie McCoy In The People of the State of California v. Ashford University, Case No. 37&#8211;2018&#8211;00046134&#8211;CU&#8211;MC&#8211;CTL (March 3, 2022), the San Diego County Superior Court held that for-profit giant Ashford University violated the law by misleading students as to <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/cpil-blog\/2022\/04\/20\/court-orders-for-profit-college-ashford-university-to-pay-over-22-million-in-civil-penalties\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1013,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132871,137112],"tags":[138096,132873,123680,138097,138099,138098],"coauthors":[132864],"class_list":["post-777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bureau-of-private-post-secondary-education","category-litigation-bureau-of-private-post-secondary-education","tag-ashford","tag-bppe","tag-decision","tag-forprofit-college","tag-judgment","tag-penaltiy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Court Orders For-Profit College, Ashford University, to Pay Over $22 Million in Civil Penalties - Consumer Protection Policy Center - Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.sandiego.edu\/cpil-blog\/2022\/04\/20\/court-orders-for-profit-college-ashford-university-to-pay-over-22-million-in-civil-penalties\/\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Court Orders For-Profit College, Ashford University, to Pay Over $22 Million in Civil Penalties - Consumer Protection Policy Center - Blog\" class=\"yoast-seo-meta-tag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Mackenzie McCoy In The People of the State of California v. 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