Legal Aid Clinic: Opportunities for lack of training

Questioner

We provide training courses spread over 11 weekends. One of the participants, a teacher, became seriously ill shortly after the first weekend of lessons. He received the full course fee of 3,300 euros via the teacher grant from DUO/Min. OC&W. He had not yet paid for the training (he was too late) and does not want to pay now either. In the event of serious illness, DUO will waive the debt in full. However, he wants to repay the amount to DUO so that he can possibly follow another training course elsewhere later. We have offered that he can still follow the training course with us after recovery, but now want payment. Our motivation: (1) it is stated in our general terms and conditions; (2) because of him the maximum number of participants had been reached and we rejected a registration and therefore suffered concrete damages (we called the interested party after the first weekend, but she had started this training elsewhere in the meantime); (3): he does not suffer any direct financial loss because of the teacher grant. We have been in contact with him by means of various e-mails, letters, telephone calls and a personal conversation, but the case is at a standstill. What are our chances if we start a lawsuit? Will he be able to claim “reasonableness and fairness”? Will the judge take into account his agreement with DUO (which we are formally outside of)?

Lawyer

The judge may take into account everything that the parties state in his judgment and even some matters that he is so-called ex officio aware of. He may also find that a provision in the general terms and conditions is unreasonably onerous (unreasonable or unfair). However, a number of rulings show that asking for the course fee or at least a large part of the course fee after the course has started is not unreasonable. Especially since the student has not suffered any damage because he has received the course fee, it seems that you have a strong case. In my opinion, the student is not being reasonable in this case and it is right that you demand payment. If you wish, I would be happy to assist you in this case. You can contact me via my profile on this site.