Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

I was just dismissed from a doctoral program in psychology because I wrote an email while asleep due to the side effects of Ambien, which are well documented and have legal precedents. However, the university did not consider the effects of the medication, even though I provided documentation, including a letter from a doctor who has 35 years of experience and said the effects of Ambien produce atypical behavior that is often not even remembered, not to mention not intentional. He states that is the case for me, but the university insisted that I was responsible for this email and instead of just warning me or finding some plan to remedy the situation, which I was lead to believe would take place, they just dismissed me all together. Now my career is ruined. I cannot apply to another school unless the dismissal is addressed and removed since it is patently a miscarriage of justice. I do not know exactly what kind of law this falls under. In addition, the student that received the unintential email, verbally attacked me for 20 minutes in a public area of the university. Her attack included 3 admissions that she was pursuing a vendetta against me to get me kicked out of the program, even though I had apologized to her and changed my behavior, including leaving her alone and getting off Ambien. Her attack meets the 4 requirements of "intentional infliction of emotional distress," which the university did hardly anything about, until I pushed them to take action. So the main issue is how to remove the dismissal from my record and perhaps in addition ask for restitution. The other less important but related issue is the student's attack on me.


Asked on 3/05/13, 3:23 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Terry A. Nelson Nelson & Lawless

If you are ready, willing and able to spend a substantial amount of money on attorney fees TRYING to get your records "corrected" in some way legally available and ethically acceptable to the university, and IF you can actually provide credible admissible evidence from medical experts that your conduct was 'legally excusable' and should not be held against you, then it MAY be possible to achieve your goal. No guarantees. If serious about doing this, feel free to contact me to arrange a consultation to discuss your available evidence and costs you will incur.

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Answered on 3/05/13, 3:33 pm


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