Withholding fees and getting exam results

I am in dispute with my son's independent school. Their complaints' procedure is very weighted towards the school, and there is a significant lack of impartiality, with Head overseeing complaint at stage 2 and deciding WHAT can and cannot be included within the complaint. I am considering taking legal advice, but intend to withhold the remaining fees, until the dispute is resolved, with financial redress being the outcome I am seeking, due to breach of contract.
As my son is taking his GCSEs currently, I am wanting to know if the school can 'legally' refuse to provide his exam results in August, and in turn, his exam certificates?

Thanks

Reply 1

Crazy Jamie

Life & Style Forum Helper, Careers Forum Helper

Whilst I have no doubt that you have landed upon this forum in an attempt to seek informal advice, you have come to the wrong place. This website is populated predominantly by students, and this one in particular is for those who are looking for advice on legal careers. So the vast majority of members on this site are not qualified to give you legal advice on this, and should not do it, even informally.

As it happens, I am a practising barrister and I deal with cases like this (breach of contract cases against independent schools) regularly. However, for hopefully obvious reasons I am not going to give legal advice on this forum on a matter like this, where much can turn on individual facts and terms, but where in any event I am not officially instructed. One thing I will say is that this is a highly specialist area. There are plenty of lawyers who can give you advice on breach of contract claims. There are few who specialise in education cases particularly, so even seeking informal advice from lawyers on the internet is something you should be wary of (and those sorts of forums do exist). In reality you need to seek specialist advice on this now, and should not be looking for it for free on the internet.

Reply 2

Zarek

You should definitely get some legal advice before withholding fees. Otherwise you are potentially in breach of contract, and I’d say it’s quite likely they could invoke some penalty like those you suggest, not to mention debt enforcement