Why many students don't fare well when they sue their schools

-- Marshall H. Tanick, a Minneapolis employment lawyer who has handled cases similar to Mary Swenson's intellectual property suit involving Capella University, explains why it's tough for students to take schools to court:

"It's a problem that comes up from time to time, particularly at the graduate or postgraduate level. Students are working on projects ... and professors may use part or all of their ideas for the development of a project with commercial value. Students have very few protections. Cases are costly to pursue, they're difficult, schools (may not be) liable, and the courts have set up a lot of barriers. ... Courts don’t look favorably on these types of cases."

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