Title IX Student Defense Lawyers
Title IX sexual misconduct charges are among the most serious disciplinary charges a college or university student can face. Title IX charges can end your higher education while ruining your reputation and career ambitions. Retain the Lento Law Group’s premier defense attorneys if you face Title IX sexual misconduct charges at your college or university. The Lento Law Group has offices, licensed attorneys, and affiliates nationwide. Call 833.536.8652 now for the skilled and experienced representation you need for your best disciplinary outcome. You have far too much at stake to accept anything less than the best possible defense.
The High Stakes of Student Disciplinary Charges
Don’t underestimate college or university Title IX charges. You need our skilled and experienced attorney defense if you have received notice that your school’s disciplinary officials are investigating a Title IX complaint against you or have already filed formal Title IX disciplinary charges. Title IX charges can lead to your swift suspension from all school privileges and later expulsion from school, especially if you do not handle the charges responsibly with our Student Defense Team’s help. Every college or university receiving federal funding, which is nearly all such schools nationwide, must enforce the federal Title IX law, rules, and regulations. Schools generally do so promptly and vigorously, far too often, without respecting the accused student’s rights. You have all the following reasons to promptly retain us for your skilled and effective defense.
College and University Title IX Suspension or Expulsion
School suspension and expulsion are significant risks of Title IX charges. The college and university climate is unusually sensitive to allegations of sexual misconduct and can be highly politically charged against accused students. You may know that you are innocent or may reasonably believe that any wrong you may have committed was minor. But no matter the evidence against you, school disciplinary officials often begin by assuming that a suspension may well be warranted on any substantial evidence of wrongdoing, even the accuser’s disputed recollection, no matter how slight the wrong may be. Suspension or even expulsion are among the risks. Every college or university with a Title IX policy, meaning all schools receiving federal funding, like Harvard University, the University of North Carolina, and the University of Southern California, will reserve to their disciplinary officials the right to suspend or expel a student committing Title IX wrongs.
Lesser College and University Title IX Sanctions
College and university Title IX policies, like those above, also commonly provide for lesser sanctions that may nonetheless cause you significant educational and personal harm. Even if your school does not suspend or expel you, your school may impose no-contact orders relating to the alleged victim. No-contact orders and other campus and privilege bans, whether temporary or longer term, can keep you from attending classes, using other campus facilities like libraries and dining halls, and thus completing your studies as you planned. You may have to withdraw from courses, take course incompletes, and delay your studies. You may also face remedial education and training requirements in anti-discrimination that soak up and burden your time. You could also have to perform school or community service. You may find yourself with these sanctions on your school transcript, keeping you from entering a graduate program or transferring to another school as you may have planned.
Collateral Harms from Title IX Violations
Once your college or university finds that you have committed a Title IX violation, you are likely to face collateral consequences and harms that you would much rather have avoided. If you suffer school expulsion, you will lose school housing, health insurance, transportation, and other privileges you previously enjoyed and on which you depended. Even if your sanction does not involve suspension or expulsion, you may lose school honors and awards, the support of school advisors and mentors, and even grants and scholarships that depend on your good standing and reputation. Professors and deans may decline to provide you with good references and solid recommendation letters, leaving you without a job or career. After you graduate, you may find it hard to obtain the professional license or certification you sought, keeping you from entering the field for which you earned your education. It simply is not too much to say that you have everything on the line when facing college or university Title IX charges.
The Higher Stakes of Title IX Charges
Any college or university disciplinary charge can be serious, carrying the above direct and collateral consequences. Title IX charges, though, carry their own unique impact, often greater than the impact of other disciplinary charges, because of the sensitive and controversial nature of sexual misconduct allegations. As further detailed below, Title IX violations involve sex discrimination of one form or another, though often involving allegations of serious sexual misconduct like rape, stalking, or sexual harassment. When schools, employers, licensing officials, and others see a Title IX violation on a student record, they may think first and foremost of those serious sexual wrongs, implicating not just student mistakes or immaturity but instead bad character and even the disposition to endanger. In short, Title IX allegations can carry a sting and leave a taint well beyond other forms of student misconduct.
How to Defend a Title IX Student Disciplinary Charge
Fortunately, colleges and universities generally owe due process to students facing disciplinary charges sufficiently serious to affect their property and liberty interests, like their interest in graduating with the degree that they’ve earned. Your college or university shouldn’t railroad you into a Title IX suspension or expulsion. Instead, your college or university must generally provide you with elaborate protective procedures. Our skilled and experienced Title IX attorneys know how to invoke those procedures for the best possible outcome to Title IX disciplinary charges. We have successfully defended hundreds of students nationwide on Title IX and similar misconduct charges. To understand how your defense may proceed, you need first to know more about Title IX.
What Is Title IX?
Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination at educational institutions receiving federal funding. Congress enacted Title IX under its spending power, which is why Title IX applies only to schools receiving federal funding. You may think that Title IX’s anti-discrimination provision means only that schools must provide equal opportunities to both sexes in school programs. But to carry out that mandate, Title IX also prohibits students from sexually assaulting and sexually harassing other students. That is, Title IX requires school officials to protect students from other students’ sexual assault and harassment. Student-on-student misconduct can result in Title IX disciplinary charges. Federal officials may charge a federally funded school with Title IX violations if the school fails to adequately police student sexual misconduct. Schools could even lose their federal funding. That’s, in part, why schools take Title IX allegations so seriously while also taking those allegations seriously simply to protect students.
Title IX Sexual Assault and Other Sex-Crime Violations
Title IX regulations clarify that Title IX prohibits specific forms of sexual misconduct. Those forms include sexual violence, not only outright rape but also other forms of non-consensual sexual touching. The sexual assault prohibition also extends to dating violence, including the use of a date-rape drug, alcohol, or other intoxicants to deprive another of the ability to consent to sexual contact. The sexual assault prohibition also includes domestic violence between intimate partners and stalking. All of these forms of Title IX misconduct may also constitute violations of state criminal laws, meaning that a student committing these forms of Title IX violation could also face criminal charges. But the school may proceed with an academic, administrative Title IX charge, whether or not local prosecutors charge a state crime.
Sexual Harassment as a Title IX Violation
But Title IX protections extend beyond sexual assault, stalking, domestic or dating violence, and similar common state-law crimes of sexual violence. Title IX also protects students from two forms of sexual harassment. The first quid pro quo form of sexual harassment involves conditioning an educational right or privilege on accepting the wrongdoer’s unwelcome sexual advances. Because students don’t generally hold the right to offer or withdraw educational privileges over other students unless the wrongdoing student is a teaching assistant or resident assistant or holds a similar position of authority, the quid pro quo form is not the more common form of sexual harassment with which schools generally charge students.
The other, more common form of Title IX sexual harassment with which schools charge students is the hostile environment form. A student victim suffers hostile environment sexual harassment when the wrongdoing student’s sexual acts are so severe or pervasive that a reasonable student would regard the environment as so hostile as to deprive the student of an educational right or privilege. The wrongdoer need not commit a sexual assault. Unwelcome sexual advances, sexual jokes, sexual innuendo, and the like may, if sufficiently severe or pervasive, create a hostile environment. In short, your unwelcome sexual communications, in whatever form, could potentially give rise to Title IX disciplinary charges.
The Credibility of Title IX Charges
Just because school disciplinary officials charge Title IX sexual misconduct does not necessarily mean that they have substantial evidence of it. They may be depending on second-hand allegations, exaggerated reports, or simply false assertions lacking any credibility. But even if the allegations have some evidentiary support, your defense may be possible. Disciplinary officials generally bear the burden of proving Title IX charges at least by a preponderance of the evidence, if not to a higher clear and convincing evidence standard. That means that we may be able to present your contrary statement or testimony, or the statement or testimony of others, contradicting the evidence supporting the charges. Title IX charges often present a literal or figurative he-said, she-said dispute over the interpretation of words and actions. Our skilled and experienced attorneys can help you win that kind of dispute with their refined investigation, presentation, cross-examination, and other advocacy skills.
Other Common Defenses to Title IX Charges
Fighting the evidence against you may not be your only defense to Title IX charges. The student accusing you of Title IX misconduct may have consented to your conduct. Consensual communications and even consensual touching and other intimacy are not generally Title IX violations. The accuser may have welcomed and participated in the alleged misconduct, in which case the Title IX charges should generally fail. In other cases, the alleged misconduct may not have occurred on school premises, around school programs, or otherwise within the school’s Title IX jurisdiction. Our skilled and experienced attorneys may raise several other defenses beyond challenging the credibility of the evidence against you, proving consent, and challenging the school’s jurisdiction. Bias or conflicts of interest on the part of the investigator, disciplinary officials, or hearing officers can be other defenses to Title IX charges.
Title IX Procedures
As indicated briefly above, colleges and universities receiving federal funding, even private schools, generally owe students due process when accusing those students of Title IX misconduct. Due process is a constitutional right when a government actor, like public school officials, seeks to deprive a student of a protected property or liberty interest, like the interest in completing higher education. But due process is also a statutory and regulatory right in Title IX proceedings, even in private colleges and universities. Colleges and universities, like the University of Michigan, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Texas, adopt Title IX procedures to provide accused students with guaranteed procedural rights. Our attorneys can help you invoke those procedures for your best outcome at any of the following stages of the Title IX proceeding.
Title IX Complaints
Under Title IX regulations, colleges and universities must maintain a complaint procedure for students to use to report suspected Title IX violations. Retain us if you become aware that another student is preparing to report or has reported that you committed a potential Title IX violation. We may be able to communicate with the accusing student’s representatives and school officials, helping you respond to the allegations before they reach the point of a formal complaint or helping you respond to the complaint itself. You may have your own claims of your accuser’s Title IX violations, or you may have a defense to your accuser’s Title IX allegations. School officials receiving and reviewing a Title IX complaint generally have the responsibility to determine whether it credibly alleges a Title IX violation. They may also have the school’s authority to engage in certain cases in a conciliation conference or other dispute resolution procedures. We may be able to help you head off a formal proceeding at the complaint stage with an early favorable and voluntary resolution, keeping your school record and personal reputation clear of Title IX charges.
Investigation of Title IX Allegations
Under Title IX regulations, colleges and universities must also maintain an investigatory process once a student makes a complaint of Title IX violations. Under procedures like the ones cited above, schools generally appoint an investigating official who has the school’s authority to interview you, your accuser, and other witnesses while also gathering and reviewing photographs, video, electronic communications, printed materials, and other evidence. The investigator generally prepares an investigation report, which the investigator may share with you for your comment and correction. Our attorneys may be able to appear on your behalf during the investigation stage, ensuring that the investigator conducts any interview of you fairly, that the investigator receives and considers your evidence, and that the investigation report is accurate or, at a minimum, includes your exonerating and mitigating evidence. We may be able to help you head off a formal hearing at the investigation stage.
Hearing of Title IX Allegations
Under Title IX regulations, colleges and universities must also maintain a formal hearing procedure for those cases in which the accused student wishes to challenge the school’s evidence of a Title IX violation. Hearing procedures, like the ones offered at the universities, indicated above, generally involve a trained and independent hearing officer or panel empowered to set a date, time, and place at which witnesses, including you and your accuser, must appear to testify under oath about the alleged and disputed matters. Under your school’s hearing procedures, our attorneys should have the right to appear on your behalf to cross-examine your accuser and other adverse witnesses while helping you present your exonerating and mitigating evidence. You must generally invoke these hearing procedures, though. If you fail to timely answer the complaint, participate in the investigation, and request and appear at the hearing, you may lose your rights and suffer the equivalent of a default, finding that you committed the Title IX violations as charged.
Appeal of Title IX Sanctions
Under Title IX regulations, colleges and universities generally also offer an appeal procedure if you suffer an adverse finding at the hearing. An appeal takes your matter before a higher official or panel within your college or university. You may, in other words, get a proverbial second bite at the apple, even if you have already lost your formal Title IX hearing at your college or university. An appeal, though, generally requires that you draft and present a detailed, written argument and authority showing how the hearing official or panel erred and what the appellate official or panel must do to correct the error. You must generally present that appeal timely, perhaps within a few days of receiving notice of the adverse finding against you. Our attorneys have the technical knowledge, skills, and experience to prepare convincing appeals, giving you the best chance possible at a reversal of adverse findings.
Alternative Special Relief from Title IX Sanctions
Do not give up, even if you have exhausted all hearings and appeals within your college or university and still face Title IX sanctions. Colleges and universities typically maintain general counsel offices or retain outside counsel to advise school officials on liability, regulatory, and reputational risks. Your college or university may have violated your legal rights when pursuing Title IX charges against you. School oversight officials in the general counsel’s office or another oversight body may be willing, at our request, to step in to correct those errors to avoid litigation, regulatory complaints, and reputational harm. Even if your school complied with all laws, rules, regulations, and procedures, our attorneys may be able to show your school’s oversight officials that the sanction you face is unwise and unnecessary, not in the school’s interest or your own best interest. Our attorneys have the national reputation and relationships to gain the attention of school oversight officials. Let us help you explore these alternative special channels.
Court and Regulatory Review of Title IX Findings
You may also have a right to limited court review of your school’s decision. A school’s due process violations can, in some circumstances, give rise to civil claims, including monetary damages claims, for court relief. The federal statute Section 1983, other special federal laws, and Title IX itself may support your right to a court review and reversal of your college or university Title IX sanction. In certain cases, the federal Office of Civil Rights may likewise take a regulator’s interest in reviewing irregularities your school committed in your Title IX proceeding. Our attorneys have the knowledge, skill, and experience to pursue court or regulatory relief on your behalf. We may also be able to communicate and negotiate with school officials using arguments for that relief to convince your school to voluntarily relieve you from its Title IX sanctions.
The Attorney’s Role in Title IX Student Defense
You can see from the above discussion that our attorneys can play a critical role in investigating, advocating, and negotiating for your Title IX relief. You carry a significant burden when facing Title IX disciplinary charges. Students do not generally have the knowledge, skill, and experience necessary to effectively navigate Title IX procedures. Even for students with refined law knowledge and procedural skill, defending oneself on one’s own behalf, without independent and objective attorney representation, can be unwise. By contrast, school disciplinary officials generally have substantial knowledge, skill, and experience in investigating, charging, and proving disciplinary cases. The playing field is in no sense level when you undertake your own defense against those officials. Even when simply communicating with those officials about the alleged matter, anything you say can and will be used against you. Our attorneys may be able to provide you with any or all of the following legal services in your Title IX matter:
● helping you communicate with your accuser or the accuser’s representatives to present explanatory context toward a voluntary and amicable resolution before school involvement;
● appearing on your behalf before your accuser’s representatives and school officials so that they communicate with and through us, protecting you from procedural lapses, inculpatory admissions, and other errors, while demonstrating to school officials your intent to vigorously contest any charges;
● answering the school’s formal complaint, helping you prepare a complaint of your own for any related Title IX violations, and helping you answer your accuser’s complaint with appropriate denials, explanations, and defenses;
● helping you identify, obtain, preserve, and present your exonerating and mitigating evidence during the investigation phase, in conciliation conferences, and at the formal hearing as necessary;
● attending all informal conferences, conciliation conferences, and prehearing conferences to advocate and negotiate for early voluntary resolution, through creative options for win-win resolution without formal sanction;
● documenting any dismissal, settlement, or other favorable resolution, to ensure that no record of the proceeding remains that could interfere with your academic, vocational, or other interests in the future;
● invoking and attending the formal hearing while presenting your witnesses and cross-examining adverse witnesses, to ensure that the hearing officer or panel gets a correct and compelling view of your exonerating and mitigating evidence;
● reviewing any adverse decision with you, to ensure that you understand all of its implications to protect yourself against those implications where and when possible;
● appealing any adverse decision based on bias, conflicts of interest, a lack of credible evidence, or any other error or irregularity, including researching, drafting, and filing the appeal brief and attending any appeal hearings; and
● helping you deal with employers, licensing bodies, or others having an interest in the outcome of your Title IX proceeding, while that proceeding is pending or after it has resolved.
How to Choose a Title IX Student Defense Attorney
Keep in mind that Title IX student defense differs sharply from the defense of an accused in a criminal court proceeding. Your college or university’s academic administrative procedures are not the same as a criminal or civil court’s procedures. Academic administrative procedures are often significantly less formal, less clear, and more reliant on academic customs and conventions. What that difference means is that you should not generally hire an unqualified local criminal defense attorney, estate planner, business lawyer, or personal injury attorney to defend your school’s Title IX proceeding against you. Our Title IX attorneys have the knowledge, skill, and experience necessary to navigate academic administrative proceedings effectively.
We won’t generally come in pounding on tables or otherwise engaging in the adversarial customs and conventions of a criminal defense attorney. Doing so would not generally be productive in an academic administrative proceeding. Indeed, it could damage the professional relationships on which the favorable resolution of your Title IX matter may depend. Our attorneys know how to speak diplomatically, clearly, respectfully, and knowledgeably with school disciplinary officials while proposing sensible resolutions that protect your academic and school record, at the same time recognizing the school’s substantial interest in appropriate Title IX resolutions. In short, we know what your school’s Title IX officials may well accept in a resolution favorable to you, and we know how to go about negotiating and advocating for that resolution.
What to Do About Title IX Charges
The above discussion shows you how we can help you obtain the best possible outcome to Title IX charges at your college or university. Take the following steps if you learn that you are under investigation for Title IX violations or are already facing formal Title IX charges:
● immediately contact our nationwide offices to retain our skilled and experienced Title IX attorneys for your best defense;
● share your complete information with us, ask us your questions, and carefully follow our instructions;
● promptly receive, open, and read any communication, whether printed or electronic, that you receive from your school about your Title IX matter;
● forward any such communication to us after you have retained us to appear on your behalf in your Title IX proceeding;
● if your school’s communication requires your prompt action, then ensure that you take that action timely and diligently, preferably after retaining us for our advice, counsel, and assistance;
● avoid communicating about your Title IX matter with friends or acquaintances, or your accuser, especially when the school may use the information you share against you;
● do not do anything that in any way appears to intimidate, coerce, or retaliate against your accuser or any other student or person participating in any way in your Title IX proceeding; and
● save every writing, photograph, video, text, email, electronic file, or other item or thing in any way related to the allegations in your Title IX proceeding, preparing to turn that evidence over to us once you retain us in your matter.
Premier Title IX Student Defense Available
Your best move is to retain the Lento Law Group’s premier attorneys if you face Title IX disciplinary charges at your college or university. We have offices across the country in which our skilled and experienced Title IX attorneys are waiting to handle your Title IX defense or other student misconduct matters. Call 833.536.8652 now for the representation you need for your best possible disciplinary outcome. You have your education, reputation, and future at stake.