Nightingale/Legal
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Legalshield Membership
Your Legalshield Membership Number: 10140366872
Employment Law
Michele Anderson-West
- Attorney at Law
- STAVROS LAW, P.C.
- 8915 South 700 East, Suite 202
- Sandy, Utah 84070
- Office: 801.758.7604
- Direct: 801.893.3594
- Fax: 801.893.3573
- Email: michele@stavroslaw.com
SMART, SCHOFIELD, SHORTER
- SMART, SCHOFIELD, SHORTER / A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION
5320 South 900 East
Suite 120
Salt Lake City, Utah 84117
Phone: 801-747-0647
Fax: 801-747-1049
Full list of lawyers - Antidiscrimination and Labor Division
Antidiscrimination and Labor Division<ref>Antidiscrimination and Labor Division:
- 160 East 300 South, 3rd Floor
- P.O. Box 146640
- Salt Lake City, UT 84114-6640
- Phone: 801-530-6801 or 1-800-222-1238
- E-mail: discrimination@utah.gov
</ref>
- https://laborcommission.utah.gov/divisions/AntidiscriminationAndLabor/attorneys.html
- Private Attorneys For Employees
Whistle-blower statute - recording conversations
- Filing a Whistleblower or Retaliation Claim - Utah, workplacefairness.org
- The legal limits of recording conduct and conversations, The law is generally more tolerant of participants who record their own conversations than of third parties who record conversations to which they are not a party. Even so, both federal and state statutes that govern such participant monitoring set forth situations where recording and disclosing participant communications can give rise to civil suits by the “injured” party, as well as criminal prosecution.
- Reporter's recording guide
- Utah Summary of statute(s):
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An individual who is a party to either an in-person conversation or electronic communication, or who has the consent of one of the parties to the communication, can lawfully record it, unless the person is doing so for the purpose of committing a criminal or tortious act. A person also can lawfully record electronic communications that are readily accessible to the general public. Utah Code Ann. § 77-23a-4 (West 2012). In-person conversations: The consent of at least one party to a conversation is required to record an “oral communication,” which is defined as “any oral communication uttered by a person exhibiting an expectation that the communication is not subject to interception, under circumstances justifying that expectation.” Utah Code Ann. § 77-23a-3.<ref>Thus, a journalist does not need consent to record conversations in public where there is no reasonable expectation of privacy.</ref> Electronic communications: The consent of at least one party to any telephone communication is required to record it. <ref>And because the provision of the statute dealing with wireless communications applies to “any transfer of signs, signals, writings, images, sounds, data, or intelligence of any nature,” consent likewise is required to disclose the contents of text messages sent between wireless devices. Id.</ref> Hidden cameras:<ref>Hidden cameras: It is a misdemeanor to install or use a hidden camera or audio recorder in a place where one may reasonably expect to be safe from intrusion or surveillance, and to use a device for recording sounds originating in the place that would not ordinarily be audible or comprehensible outside. Utah Code Ann. §§ 76-9- 402, 76-9-401. The law, however, does not criminalize the use of recording devices for other purposes in areas to which the public has access or there is no reasonable expectation of privacy (i.e., filming conversations on public streets or a hotel lobby).</ref> <ref>Criminal penalties: Illegally recording an in-person conversation or electronic communication is a felony, except where the communication is the radio portion of a cellular telephone communication. In those cases, the violation is only a misdemeanor offense. Utah Code Ann. § 77-23a-4.</ref> Civil suits: Anyone whose wire, electronic or oral communication has been recorded or disclosed in violation of the law, or any electronic communications service, subscriber or customer aggrieved by a violation of the law, can bring a civil suit to recover such relief as may be appropriate, including damages, attorney’s fees and court costs. Utah Code Ann. §§ 77-23a-11, 77-23b-8. <ref>Disclosing recordings: Disclosing the contents of a wire, electronic or oral communication obtained through illegal recording is a felony. Utah Code Ann. § 77-23a-4.</ref>
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Whistleblower damages
False Claim Act
Treble damages
- treble damages
-
Utah Whistleblower lawsgovernment only
Whistleblower sues College America
POTTS V. CENTER FOR EXCELLENCE IN HIGHER EDUCATION, INC.[1]
- ORDER granting 11 Defendant's Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff's Complaint Pursuant to FRCP 12(b) by Judge R. Brooke Jackson on 3/24/17. (jdyne, ) [2] (PDF)
- Potts v. Center for Excellence in Higher Education, Inc. Access additional case information on PACER.[3]
- Plaintiff's attorneys
- Zachary Steven Westerfield
Westerfield & Martin, LLC
600 17th Street
South Tower
Suite 2800
Denver, CO 80202
303-748-3444
Email: zach@westerfieldlaw.com
LEAD ATTORNEY
- Brandon Jay Mark
Parsons Behle & Latimer-Salt Lake City
201 South Main Street
One Utah Center
Suite 1800
Salt Lake City, UT 84111
801-536-6958
Fax: 801-536-6111
Email: bmark@parsonsbehle.com
- Logan Ross Martin
Westerfield & Martin, LLC
600 17th Street
South Tower
Suite 2800
Denver, CO 80202
303-915-5002
Email: logan@westerfieldlaw.com
article
Whistleblower sues College America claiming wide-scale fraud<ref>Kirk Mitchell, Whistleblower sues College America claiming wide-scale fraud, The Denver Post, (July 13, 2016).</ref>
The former director of a college satellite center in Cheyenne owned by the Center for Excellence in Higher Education has sued the company in U.S. District Court in Denver, claiming it fraudulently recouped millions of dollars in federal money and asked her to lie to qualify for accreditation.
Debbi Potts, who said she quit her job in 2012 after being asked to lie on federal reports, also named CollegeAmerica Denver Inc., an associated business, as a defendant in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by Denver attorneys Logan Martin and Zachary Westerfield and Salt Lake City attorney Brandon Mark.
She seeks compensatory damages and attorneys fees.
A phone message left Wednesday with the office of CEHE was not immediately returned.
CEHE’s website says the nonprofit was formed in 2006 by a group of philanthropists who donated millions of dollars to U.S. colleges. In 2012, CEHE merged with CollegeAmerica, Stevens-Henager College and California College San Diego, the website says.
- RELATED ARTICLES
JULY 22, 2015 Lawsuit against CollegeAmerica continues, preliminary injunction motion dismissed
FEBRUARY 17, 2015 CollegeAmerica sued by Colorado AG for “deceptive trade practices”
Potts claims she worked for CEHE between 2009 and 2012 as the campus director of the Center’s Cheyenne, Wyo. satellite center. She said she resigned after her supervisors asked her to lie about accreditation standards on federal reports.
CEHE obtained hundreds of millions of dollars in Title IV money by falsely claiming the school abides by a variety of laws, regulations and contractual obligations, the lawsuit says.
In 2013, Potts reported numerous accreditation violations to the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges. Among other things, the lawsuit says CollegeAmerica failed to maintain instructional equipment including electrocardiogram machines, computer software and basic graphic arts supplies.
The lawsuit says CEHE retaliated by filing a lawsuit against her in Larimer County, accusing her of violating a contract she signed shortly after leaving the company that prevented her from going to government officials to report wrongdoing. Potts’ lawsuit says that prohibition was illegal.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction against CEHE requiring it to dismiss the legal claim, calling her government disclosures protected.
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