Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:PLEASE GET OFF THIS FORUM. Lawsuits of any kind at this sensitive time for the program strike me as destructive. Plantiffs lawyers are trying to make a profit and that is why they are soliciting here. Of course I understand that some families feel they have a legitimate complaint against an agency, but I don't think a class action lawsuit will help them (or other HFs) in any way.
Agree fully. The entire program is on the edge of a cliff at this moment, and the suggestion that a potential class action lawsuit will HELP the program is misguided, at best. My guess is that this poster is a paralegal or other non-lawyer staff member at a law firm considering taking this case, who is trying to gather as many good class representative options as possible (and they will pick the "best" ones to use in the caption when the suit is filed).
Nothing is perfect and hey, I guess if you and others (or rather, your clients) feel they were wronged, then have at it and bring suit. There are already civil remedies available. as you have already noted (fraud claims ,etc), so I'm not sure why you think "Congress" is or should be part of this particular endeavor of yours (and frankly, I don't think you do plan to involve "Congress"... I think you are saying that here to get others to buy what you are selling). This is simply not an issue that will (or even should) be solved via legislation. With all that is going on right now in the world, Congress does not care one ounce about tweaking the AP program (which in any event is potentially going to be cut off at the knees by Executive Order, depending on the whims of our impulsive President).
So, please do not try to spin this as good for the AP program. It's not. All this will do is turn on yet another burner under an already boiling pot. But this poster doesn't care about that.
The best response to this would be: you don't know what you don't know.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:PLEASE GET OFF THIS FORUM. Lawsuits of any kind at this sensitive time for the program strike me as destructive. Plantiffs lawyers are trying to make a profit and that is why they are soliciting here. Of course I understand that some families feel they have a legitimate complaint against an agency, but I don't think a class action lawsuit will help them (or other HFs) in any way.
Agree fully. The entire program is on the edge of a cliff at this moment, and the suggestion that a potential class action lawsuit will HELP the program is misguided, at best. My guess is that this poster is a paralegal or other non-lawyer staff member at a law firm considering taking this case, who is trying to gather as many good class representative options as possible (and they will pick the "best" ones to use in the caption when the suit is filed).
Nothing is perfect and hey, I guess if you and others (or rather, your clients) feel they were wronged, then have at it and bring suit. There are already civil remedies available. as you have already noted (fraud claims ,etc), so I'm not sure why you think "Congress" is or should be part of this particular endeavor of yours (and frankly, I don't think you do plan to involve "Congress"... I think you are saying that here to get others to buy what you are selling). This is simply not an issue that will (or even should) be solved via legislation. With all that is going on right now in the world, Congress does not care one ounce about tweaking the AP program (which in any event is potentially going to be cut off at the knees by Executive Order, depending on the whims of our impulsive President).
So, please do not try to spin this as good for the AP program. It's not. All this will do is turn on yet another burner under an already boiling pot. But this poster doesn't care about that.
Anonymous wrote:PLEASE GET OFF THIS FORUM. Lawsuits of any kind at this sensitive time for the program strike me as destructive. Plantiffs lawyers are trying to make a profit and that is why they are soliciting here. Of course I understand that some families feel they have a legitimate complaint against an agency, but I don't think a class action lawsuit will help them (or other HFs) in any way.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:or at least a description . . . . .
A description.... We have approx. 50 host families that have all shared information. We are in contact with a producer who will get this on national news once we have several items in place. We have a breakfast meeting setup with my Congressman to talk about presenting a bill before Congress with a co-sponsor from the opposite party to help give host families more protections. There are currently zero protections for host families in the State Dept. regulations concerning the au pair program. We are claiming fraud against several agencies. We have approx. 5 firms looking at the case and we want the best and of course not all 5 would take it on anyway. This will most likely go class action in Federal court. This is a grassroots effort from a bunch of great families that actually care about other people and their children. It might sound easy to throw out a bunch of names on a public forum but the website was a way to allow us to keep families information on a secure server and to contact them in the future. Some families are still with agencies so we are not trying to make their life difficult. The people who will be involved would clearly be upset over how the agency treated them. We can be much more specific once we put a couple more pieces together. The main point is to gather a list of potential families that might be party to this suit. This is usually thousands of dollars that are lost when a family is either kicked out of a program for raising alarm bells, losing an ap for whatever reason, etc.
We are trying to save the au pair program while making it better for host families and au pairs.
We feel a bi-partisan bill could allow Congress to show they are attempting to help American families while still keeping the program. It would give both sides the talking points they need.
Anonymous wrote:or at least a description . . . . .
Anonymous wrote:Who are you? The website has no information at all.
Perhaps this just a finishing expedition or scam . . . .