FLORIDA COASTAL SCHOOL OF LAW

Former students of the now-shuttered Florida Coastal School of Law will soon have their debts canceled.

A 43,000-square-foot building on Jacksonville’s Southside now sits empty after Florida Coastal School of Law — once considered a respected, up-and-coming Jacksonville law school — closed its doors for good at the end of the 2021 spring semester.

There’s new help for local law students saddled with student loan debt.

Florida Coastal School of Law’s hopes of staying open suffered a setback Monday when a federal judge denied a motion for a court order restoring its eligibility for federal funding.

Florida Coastal School of Law’s hopes of staying open suffered a setback Monday when a federal judge denied a motion for a court order restoring its eligibility for federal funding.

Florida Coastal School of Law has filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona.

The Florida Coastal School of Law on Friday said it’s disputing the findings by the Department of Education (ED) in a letter that denied the school’s reinstatement in the Title IV Student Loan program.

Florida Coastal School of Law in Jacksonville, the city’s only law school, has learned its application to get back into the federal student loan program has been denied.

It could be a temporary setback, or it could be a “death knell” as some has described it.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Two law professors are suing Florida Coastal School of Law in a complaint that accuses the for-profit schools owners of putting their own interests ahead of the schools. The four-count lawsuit was filed July 17 in Duval County by the law firm of Morgan & Morgan on behalf of law professors Benjamin Priester and Jennifer Reiber. Among other things, the suit accuses Florida Coastal School of Law and its ownership of breach of contract by unilaterally cutting employees agreed upon salaries to offset budget shortfalls. Accordingly, Defendant FCSL is Defendant Richard Inatomes alter ego and Defendant FCSL functions as a mere instrumentality of Defendant Richard Inatome, the complaint states. Were focused at this time on ensuring a high quality law school education and environment for our students and staff.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. - After 11 years with the school, a Florida Coastal School of Law dean has resigned from his position. The school confirmed to News4Jax that Dean Scott DeVito's resignation came after the American Bar Association denied Florida Coastal's application to convert to a nonprofit law school. A statement from a spokesperson for the school said in part: "We have great respect for Dean DeVito and appreciate all of his contributions to the school." In a statement to faculty, he wrote:"It has been a great honor to be a professor at Florida Coastal for the last eleven years and to have been your dean for the last four. After considerable thought and personal reflection, I have made the decision to resign from Florida Coastal School of Law.