What kind of legal action can be taken against writing companies?

Hello. I know one company which claims on its websites that it hires exclusively native speakers of English language but yet has some ESL writers with no or lack of life/educational experience in any of the English speaking countries. The company is duly registered in the States. I wonder whether there can be any sort of legal action against them for this?

The point is knowing is different than proving. It's one thing you know that the company has some ESL writers (against its claims); it's, however, another thing to prove this claim wrong. If you can do that (which I don't think is possible), you can possibly sue them for misrepresentation or misleading their clients. Nothing more than that.

Sure, the point is that i can prove it. If you can, please, go into more details about misrepresentation and will they even suffer if I prove their guilt?

First, MeoKhan is not a lawyer, nor is this a legal forum, so asking for this type of advice is like asking the guy who bags your groceries about your dietary needs.

Second, how do you know the company is "duly registered in the States"? Which state, specifically? How are they incorporated?

Third, do you have screenshots of the native writers only claim? What evidence do you have that the writer is not a native English speaker?

I have no doubt that you got scammed, but pursuing this is going to be difficult if not impossible. It's what these companies count on. Chances are the company is not based in the US at all, and is entirely outside the reach of US law in this specific instance.

I think this type of law suit falls in the category of contract law. Your lawyer will have to work on the evidence the company used to mislead you. You must also be a party in the contract with that company. If you are not, you cannot sue them. However, if I am not wrong, you can claim for the damages incurred upon you by such misrepresentation. It involves a lot of calculations and differ from one country to another. Your lawyer will guide you better in this regard.

Yes that's what I stated in the foregoing post. Evidence is what counts. I am of course not a lawyer and have admitted it already. He asked of me for an opinion that I just passed.

Thanks to both of you for your answers. I do have the screenshot and there is a prove that they are registered in the US. I am not going into specifics right know because I do not know whether I will be taking action against them. The only thing I want to know is whether the blow will be serious enough to make them stop cheating in case I do sue them.

Thanks again.

You should have started and stopped there. He's not even talking about a civil suit, necessarily; it sounds like he's more interested in criminal charges. When it comes to reimbursement for the purchase made, it would be a small claims matter where lawyers aren't allowed (you can always pay a lawyer for advice, but they can't come into court with you and you'll end up paying more than you'll win, in many cases). This would also be a very simple contract case, assuming that a promise of only native-speaking writers was included in the contract. Again, proving that is the big problem.

The only "specifics" you need are the registered name of the corporation, as an active corporation, registered with the Secretary of State in which the company is incorporated. In order to press charges/file suit, you'll need their agent for service, anyway, and the SoS website is usually the easiest place to find this.

Here's the thing: a lot of companies make it look like they're based in the US when they really aren't. A lot of people who don't really know what they're doing get fooled by this. Unless you have found the company registered as an active corporation within a specific state, using that state's own website, you don't have the knowledge you think you have.

I don't think so. Secondly, Pheelyks is right. Proving your claim will be a BIG problem. All the luck, though.

The only thing you would be able to sue them for is the money you spent purchasing the work you're displeased with, and if you got a really permissive judge you might be able to get some punitive damages. You will not be able to successfully sue them for millions or even thousands of dollars, however, so no, you will not be able to stop them from doing what they are doing with a civil suit.

Guys, I have started this thread to see whether there is a way to make one particular company stop cheating. I thought most of the people here do pursue similar objective (with regards to different companies, though). That's it.

What about damage to their reputation? Will not it detract their clients? I am not seeking millions or even thousands of dollars.

Then the answer is no.

So you plan to sue all (I mean all) US-based companies? Name one US-based company that has never worked with a non-native speaker. If the writing level (as judged by the company) is native-equivalent then most (if not all) companies won't refuse to contract with such a writer.

Many customers come here in the hopes of doing this, but it doesn't really happen.

Sorry but it's not ME; it's the revolutionary V for



Little if any.

Hi. Not all, just one. Could you tell me what is a "native-equivalent" and how an ESL writer can achieve it?

An ESL writer who writes as well as a native writer. Just one. Hm.

What about the second part? How it can be achieved? :) ESL writers have to live or study in an English-speaking country to achieve that high level of proficiency, don't they?

Not necessarily. It's the work that's more important rather than the place of living.

OK, agree. But that doesn't matter as the website says only native speakers are hired!

Most clients would choose to work with an excellent ESL writer rather than a mediocre native speaker.

Yes, but that is the other side of the issue. You cannot justify a company lying about qualifications of its employees simply by stating that.

You're right but proving your point would be a major issue really.

We concluded that an excellent ESL writer is often better than a poor or average native speaker.

Here is a list of things I can present:
Several screenshots from their website where they claim all writers are native speakers
An adevrtisment from another website where they ask only native-speaking writers to contact them as there is no chance for others to get employed
A whole documented story of how an average ESL writer got there and worked for quite a long time, writing quite a lot of papers. And she never lied about her qualifications during the selection process.

I think it's a fail.

But if you have money to waste on a lawyer, good luck. If you win, Pepsi will finally be able to prove in court that their product tastes better than a Coke ;).

Sorry, you just LOST right there. In order to obtain any sort of punitive damages, you will likely have to prove "intent to deceive" or malice on the part of the company. The fact that the company's employment ads specifically direct non-native English speakers NOT to bother contacting the company is a clear indication that the company's intent is both honorable and legal. Sorry, but you have ZERO case.

Hi. Thanks for the comment. Did you read my previous post till the end? I said an ESL writer actually was employed and worked for them. And she never concealed the fact she was ESL with no life/educational experience in any of English-speaking countries.

So what's wrong with this story? She must have had expert level skills and so the company hired her. How can this be regarded cheating? If you receive a best product that makes you so happy, do you care whether a native or an ESL writer did it? Your case is weak, sorry.

Having read this discussion in more detail I conclude a legitimate US/UK based company should now think twice before working with an ESL writer (even an excellent one). Who'd want to work with someone who bites the hand that feeds them?

Yes, I did.

You would have to prove ALL of the following:

* the company KNEW that the writer is ESL;
* the company KNEW that the writer is an unqualified, ESL writer and knowingly hired him/her, anyway;
* the company hired the writer based on poor, "ESL" writing samples;
* the company employed "bad faith," "intent to deceive," and/or malice.

Companies hire freelance writers based solely on the personal information and writing samples that those writers provide.

Online companies never meet the applicants in person. ESL applicants have been known to hire an editing service to edit their writing samples. That's sad and pathetic, but true.

Again, you have no case.

I think this would fall under the definition of a frivolous lawsuit. I have a sneaking suspicion that the "complainant" is actually the ESL writer from the company. I suspect that this writer has an ax to grind and just wants to get even with his / her former boss. Perhaps the writer was released from employment? Maybe the fines applied to the writer's account for dismal writing was so much that the writer did not receive a salary several times. Maybe the writer wanted something that the company could not provide. These are all valid reasons for an ingrate to bite the hand that feeds or fed it.

No lawyer will take this case. Not a public lawyer, not a paid lawyer. They know a case that will get thrown out the minute they read it. Now, if that was high profile case where the lawyer could stand to make millions off the settlement then this person would find a lawyer to take on the case. I strongly doubt that though.

In principle, he could have sued them if he relied on their representation about using only NES-writers and he received work written by an ESL-writer. Contrary to some of the opinions expressed above, neither "knowledge" nor "intent to deceive" nor hiring practices nor "bad faith" nor "malice" would ever be issues in a simple breach-of-contracts case brought by a customer. The only elements of the case would have been the company's public misrepresentation of using only NES-writers, his having paid for the essay relying on that misrepresentation, and his having received an essay that was written by an ESL-writer. His burden as the plaintiff would simply have been establishing that the work he received was written by someone who speaks (and writes) in ESL-English and not NES-English. That wouldn't have been particularly difficult to do, but he'd had to have convinced the fact-finder (most likely a small-claims-court judge, rather than any jury) that the writing was ESL. Essentially, if the contract was for NES-writing and he received ESL-writing, they were in breach, and if he could have proved that, he'd have been entitled to a refund. (Incidentally, nothing in this post is intended to be legal advice; it's just an intellectual discussion of this legal issue 6.5 years after the alleged breach.)

Nevertheless, it's really not a practical endeavor for several reasons:

1. Clean Hands Doctrine: If it seems to the fact-finder that he purchased the product to submit it for academic credit either in whole or in part, his case could get tossed, just based on that. Since that's an assumption very likely to be made by the judge (or arbitrator) based on the website copy and the project specs (both of which would have been essential evidence to establish his claim), he'd probably end up having had to rebut that assumption by showing the essay he received and the actual graded essay that he submitted instead of the essay he received.

2. He'd have to have sued in his legal name and court records are public information. Even if it's just a small-claims case, he probably wouldn't want every future employer (and anybody else) who Googles him and/or does a background search on him to find "Steve Jones vs. ABC Academic Essay Writing Company" under the Civil Litigation section of his background report, especially with a date that corresponds to the dates when he was in college, because most employers can add 1 + 1. That information stays out there, essentially, forever.

3. He'd probably have had to travel (several times) to whatever state the company is located or registered to receive legal process. Even if he could have filed the case online in that state, he'd still have to have appeared for the court date and the company could have gotten the case adjourned several times just to make things difficult and prohibitively costly for him, requiring him to have appeared each time they made that motion on the scheduled trial date in small-claims court. Chances are each trip could easily have cost him roughly as much as the maximum award he could possibly have gotten, depending on where he was in relation to them.

4.Even in the best-case scenario, any recovery, would be limited to a refund for his payment. There's no such thing as economic damages or consequential damages from a simple breach-of-contracts case. You don't get compensated for your time wasted writing it yourself, or for your grade, or your aggravation. The one exception would be if one could prove that he had to pay another company or writer more for the same essay written in NLE at a higher cost, in which case, his maximum compensable damages would have been the amount of difference between what he paid the second provider and what he paid for the first essay. This is called the "benefit of the bargain" and that's the only measure of damages (beyond the refund plus interest and court fees) in a simple breach-of-contract case. However, keep in mind that 1 through 3 above probably still make pursuing this as a civil claim a waste of time.

So, if he used the essay for his class, there was never really any legal recourse, at least none that could have resulted in a monetary recovery. If he didn't use it for his class, he might have had a case (technically), subject to 2 through 4 above. That's why anyone's best bet as a client who receives ESL-writing from any company that promises only writing in NLE, in keeping with the purpose of this forum, would be to just name the company and post the original specs and the essay right here. You don't have to worry about getting sued for anything by the company unless it's not obvious that the essay was written in ESL-English rather than NES-English. Even then, there are more reasons that the company wouldn't bother suing you than vice-versa.

What makes it difficult to sue a writing company is the lack of factual information regarding the company. You cannot rely on the IP address, the physical address, the phone number, not even the chat operator, to reflect the actual location and ownership of the company. Before someone can file a suit, he needs to have evidence of wrongdoing, and a confirmed physical address to deliver the summons to. These cannot be provided in this instance so it would really seem like there is no possible way to initiate any legal action on the company. The only way to get around the block would be to hire a private detective to work the case, which this poster cannot afford to do. Wanna bet?

It is not possible to sue essay writing companies for misrepresentation because of the distance between the client and the supplier. Each one is located in a different area of the world, making it impossible to enforce the laws of each country on the company. It would cost too much for the client to learn of the actual office address of the company and they go the country just to file a lawsuit. It is better to simply let it slide and make their misdeed public information instead.

Correct for all the reasons detailed in my Post # 32, and because publicizing the name of the company involved promotes the main purpose of this forum: namely, to help other students avoid being ripped off by the same company.