Students sued the University of California regents Thursday to reverse a series of fee increases enacted by the governing board since late last year.

Eight UC students -- most enrolled in law school -- filed the suit in San Francisco Superior Court and are seeking to make it a class action.

"We've been trying to get the regents' attention on this for months," said Mohammad Kashmiri, a third-year UC Berkeley law student and a plaintiff. "They claim that they don't have the money ... well, I don't have the money."

UC officials said the state's $38.2 billion budget shortfall left them no choice but to raise fees and that regents have the authority to make those increases at any time.

"The budget crisis has forced UC to make very difficult choices about student fees within a very short time frame," said UC spokesman Hanan Eisenman.

The lawsuit alleges that last-minute fee increases approved by the regents for spring and summer sessions broke a contract with students who had already enrolled, registered and paid. Plaintiffs are asking the court to order refunds for those increases.

"The important thing is that we did try to notify students," Eisenman said. "We've done the best we can in a volatile situation."

The suit also says the regents violated their own policy when they approved increases for the fall that would raise fees at least 25 percent for continuing law, medicine, nursing and other professional school students.

Students argue that UC policy promised to keep fees for continuing professional students at a steady level and would impose any increases on incoming students only.

"They broke their own official policy," said Jonathan Weissglass, attorney for the students. "The problem is that they specifically promised that they wouldn't change this category of fees and then did it."

Weissglass said he will be in court today to request a hearing to overturn the fall fee increases for professional students.

UC officials say the policy about fees is clear: Regents can change them at any time.

"While the regents make every effort to keep fees stable, the policy clearly says that fees are subject to change," Eisenman said.

Faced with a minimum of $360 million in spending cuts ordered by state officials, UC officials agreed last week to raise student fees by 25 percent and gave President Richard Atkinson authority to boost them an additional 5 percent. That action followed more modest increases enacted last winter for spring 2003 and again in May, just before the opening of summer school.