Can/should we get a lawyer for the below problem?
My wife attends a public college in the state of Georgia. During the last semester she decided to withdraw from a science class because the major she was changing to did not require this class. She collected the forms and had them signed and submitted. To her surprise at the end of the semester she realized she was not withdrawn from the class and instead issued a failing grade. The reason for this was because she did not get a second signature on the form which she mistakenly did not realize she needed. An advisor she spoke with during the process led her to believe she had completed the withdrawal process completely.
She scheduled a meeting with the registrars office who has the ability to change her grade from an F to a W (withdraw) but the individual she met with refused to do so simply saying that my wife should have read the form properly. Perhaps this would be ok except the repercussions of this mistake are huge. Her GPA was reduced to a level where she can no longer transfer out of this 2 year college to another and she is effectively stuck there until the GPA comes back up which would require taking many more classes that she doesn�t need. She has lost federal financial aid because of this mistake and can no longer afford to attend college. She has spent hours and hours, meeting and emailing with people to no avail. It seems only one department can fix it and they have no sympathy.
These are life altering consequences of a very minor mistake, namely, failing to get a single signature. My question is can we get a lawyer for this problem and attempt to go after the school for these losses and to get the grade changed or is there no legitimacy for doing that? If so what kind of lawyer would one use? Thanks so much.
