Conflict With a Roommate, Landlord or Coworker?

 The Center for Student Legal Services offers mediation services to help students resolve disputes in a friendly and confidential environment.

Mediation is an informal process during which an impartial third party, called a medi­ator, helps disputing individuals find a mutually acceptable agreement. The goal of mediation is to clarify misunderstandings and to arrive at a solution to which all parties can agree. A mediator is not a judge and does not impose a decision. Instead, the mediator helps those involved in the dispute explain their concerns, understand important issues and arrive at a shared solution.

The Center for Student Legal Services can mediate a wide range of conflicts including landlord/tenant issues, roommate disputes, employer/ employee conflicts, neighbor and community disagreements and other civil matters.

There are many benefits to mediation, including confidentiality and freedom to generate mutually agreeable solutions. Additionally, mediation can promote healthier relation­ships through improved communication and shared problem solving. Mediation is entirely voluntary and many mediation sessions can yield results in 1-2 hours.

 The cost of mediation is already included in the $8 dollar quarterly fee assessed to Ohio University students. Students who have paid the $8 CSLS fee will not pay anything for mediation services, regardless of the length or number of sessions. This makes mediation far more affordable than taking a dispute to court, which can cost hundreds of dollars in court fees. Our trained mediators have flexible hours to help work around your schedule.

For more information about CSLS Mediation Services, or to make an appointment, contact us. 

Social Networking and Criminal Records: What you Do Now Can Affect Your Future

Landing a job in a down-turned economy is a challenge for any applicant and in this age of social media, preparing for a job interview requires more than a tight resume and a well-ironed shirt. Those looking for a job should consider what kind of virtual impression they are making. Increasingly, savvy interviewers are turning to the internet to glean information about and relying on criminal background checks to eliminate applicants from consideration.

Social media sites like Facebook and MySpace can offer employers insight into the habits and personality of an applicant. Employers that can gain access to this information may use it to deny employment to applicants who are otherwise qualified. While it is illegal to discriminate against applicants based on protected characteristics (race, sex, age, national origin, religion, disability, pregnancy, and in some instances sexual orientation), it is not illegal to make decisions based on perceptions of maturity, morality, or overall intelligence.

Cleaning up your social media footprint could go a long way when it comes to first impressions with employers. Applicants should consider the security settings offered by the social media sites and limit those setting to only allow those with permission to view their profiles and postings. Applicants should be cautious about who they allow access to their information and only “friend” those people that they actually know. Applicants should also consider deleting information or images that are particularly unflattering: What was funny at a party might not be amusing to a potential employer.

If you have a criminal record of any sort, you should investigate whether your criminal record can be expunged or sealed. A criminal record is any criminal history compiled by state, local, or federal law enforcement agencies. The criminal record will likely contain information about all offenses, including traffic violations. By expunging or sealing a criminal record, the information about the crime will be removed from “public view,” and with some limited exceptions, will not be available to employers.

Employers who are able to get access to an applicant’s criminal record may legally use that information for hiring decisions provided that they are able to show a legitimate “business necessity” for doing so. In other words, consideration of the criminal history must be reasonably related to the requirements of the job. For instance, a bank would be well within its right to deny employment to an applicant with a criminal history that includes theft if that individual would be working with money.

Prior to accessing an applicant’s criminal record, the employer must give notice to the applicant and seek the applicant’s permission to use the criminal record. If a criminal record is used by the employer, the employer must provide the applicant with a copy and a summary of the applicant’s rights. The use of background checks is subject to standards set forth by the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

When an applicant has expunged or sealed an arrest record in Ohio, the applicant may legitimately deny that the arrest occurred. However, applicants should confirm that the information is in fact hidden from public view. Unfortunately, private agencies that compile criminal records sometimes have databases that contain archived data and the fact of the expungement or sealing will not keep that information out of the hands of employers. Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, you do have the right to dispute incorrect information.

Kristine Hayes, former Staff Attorney

Tags: athens ohio, criminal record, employment, expungement, facebook, myspace, ohio university, sealing, social media

What you Don’t Know about your Credit Can Hurt You!

College students are bombarded with credit card applications on a regular basis.  As they walk to class they are showered with offers of free T-shirts, liters of soda, or pizza if they fill out a credit card application.  Most students do not realize that simply applying for the credit card, without ever using it, can impact their credit score.  Others living on limited incomes may come to depend on their credit cards to fill the gap between their student loan disbursements.  The plummet into credit card debt can happen very quickly, but have a lasting impact on a student’s life and future plans.  One negative impact of credit card debt may be a low credit score. 

Credit reports and credit scores are more important than many people realize.  A student’s credit report can impact their ability to obtain a car or mortgage loan, insurance coverage and even employment.  Individuals living with credit card debt are often embarrassed that they allowed themselves to sink so far into debt and often simply ignore it.  Unfortunately, if a debt is ignored for too long, it can lead to other problems.  The debt may be sold to a debt collection agency and if ignored for even longer, the creditor may file a lawsuit against the student, which can lead to a judgment and possible wage garnishment. 

The Center for Student Legal Services encourages any student dealing with issues related to credit card debt to schedule an appointment and discuss their problem with an attorney as soon as possible.  Furthermore, the Center for Student Legal Services encourages all students to obtain their credit report annually to ensure that the reporting is accurate.  For more information on obtaining your free credit report, check out: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp.  If your student disagrees with the information in their credit report, have them contact the Center for Student Legal Services for more information about disputing inaccurate credit reports.

The attorneys at the Center for Student Legal Services can provide students with advice regarding a variety of consumer protection issues, including but not limited to the following:

-          Unfair debt collection

-          Inaccurate credit reporting

-          Wrongful insurance denial

-          Identity theft

-          Used vehicle fraud

-          Predatory lending

Melissa Greenlee, Staff Attorney

Tags: credit, credit cards, credit score