Anna Alaburda filed a lawsuit accusing Thomas Jefferson School of Law of fraud when she couldn’t find a job.

As Katie Lobosco of CNNMoney reported, Alaburda, who graduated in 2008, passed the bar on her first attempt. But three years after graduating, she still hadn’t found work in the legal field. She felt misled by the law school, which had reported 80 percent of its recent graduates found jobs within nine months.

“A handful of other law school grads have brought similar cases against their alma maters in the past five years, but Alaburda’s is the only one that made it to trial,” Loboso reported.

Alaburda ended up with more than $150,000 in debt. And those jobs the school reported? Many weren’t in the legal field.

“Central to the case was whether the school had presented accurate data to U.S. News and World Report as part of the publication’s annual ranking of law schools,” reported Gary Warth of the San Diego Union-Tribune. “While the report showed the number of graduates working to be about the same as other law schools, the data included people who were in jobs unrelated to the law profession. Some were working in salons, restaurants, as valets and selling books or tractors, according to evidence during the trial.”

One juror took issue with how the employment data was compiled, telling a reporter, “I found it kind of appalling.”

Still the jury ended up rejecting Alaburda’s claim she was misled about the employment data.

“Thomas Jefferson stood by its employment figures,” wrote Elizabeth Olson for the New York Times. “Its lawyer, Michael Sullivan, argued that earning a law degree was not a guarantee of a well-paying job.”

As Olson reported, “Entry-level legal jobs began shrinking after the 2008 economic slowdown, and law graduates were left saddled with six-figure debt loads and limited job prospects.”

During the trial Sullivan, the law school’s attorney, testified: “I’m not here to tell you a law degree is a guarantee of career success, is a guarantee of riches. It’s not. No degree is.”

There it is. And it’s why so many students and their parents need to stop piling up on debt for a degree.

Color of money question of the week
Do you think the jury let the law school off the hook? Send your comment to colorofmoney@washpost.com. Please include your name, city and state. Unless comments are particularly sensitive, I like to identify commenters. Put “Degree and debt but no job” in the subject line.

Live Chat Cancelled
I’m away so there won’t be a live chat today. Here’s the link for last week’s discussion. NerdWallet’s Liz Weston was my guest and she answered a lot of questions about credit scoring.

Color of Money Columns
Here are my columns for the past week:
— In financial spring cleaning, here’s what to keep

— Why your finances need to be part of your spring cleaning

Rodney Brooks on Retirement
I have a plan for my second act.

Do you?

This week Rodney Brooks, who writes the Post’s retirement column, talked about having plans for a career encore before you retire from your first job.