Momentum

Lawsuits

• Jane Doe L.Y. and June Doe A.D. v. Trails Academy, LLC, et al. 2024 | In progress | United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Asheville Division | 1:24-cv-00254-MOC-SCR Names this facility

  Two Florida parents, Jane Doe L.Y. and June Doe A.D., filed a proposed class action on October 11, 2024 in federal court in Asheville against Trails Academy, Trails Carolina and their Oregon parent companies doing business as Family Help & Wellness. They seek to represent everyone in the United States who bought residential program services from the defendants, with a Florida subclass, and seek repayment of tuition. The complaint alleges the companies misrepresented the Trails Momentum program, which their son attended in 2021, as safe and therapeutic, pressured families through an admissions salesperson, and charged a 3,900 dollar enrollment fee plus 585 dollars a day, 24,570 dollars for the first 42 days. On December 30, 2024 the defendants moved to dismiss or compel arbitration under the family's enrollment agreement; the documents do not show a ruling or a class certification decision.

• John Doe M.D.Y. v. Trails Academy, LLC, et al. 2024 | In progress | United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina, Asheville Division | 1:24-cv-00253-MOC-SCR Names this facility

  A young man identified as John Doe M.D.Y. sued Trails Academy, Trails Carolina and their Oregon parent companies, which do business as Family Help & Wellness, in federal court in Asheville on October 11, 2024. He enrolled at 18 in the Trails Momentum young-adult wilderness program and stayed 93 days, from March to June 2021 (the defense gives March 3 to June 3, 2021). The complaint alleges an invasive strip search on arrival in which a staff member touched his genitals, two weeks isolated in a cabin, censored letters and a single muted phone call home, unpaid cleaning, cooking and landscaping work, days in freezing weather with frozen boots and limited food and water, threats that he would be arrested if he left, and little mental health care, and says his mental health collapsed afterward, including a suicide attempt in October 2021. It also alleges an admissions employee misled his parents. The plaintiff asked for a Rule 9(j) extension for any medical malpractice claims, which the defendants opposed, and on December 30, 2024 the defendants moved to dismiss or compel arbitration under a March 2021 enrollment agreement; the documents do not show rulings on those motions.