Articles Posted in Title IX Investigations and Hearings

As a Title IX attorney routinely representing clients accused of dating violence or some form of harassment or sexual misconduct at a college or university, I sometimes find it incredibly frustrating to deal with the general lack of due process provided to students, especially the accused. Compounding matters, as an advisor to these students, I have witnessed time and time again the lack of practical and actual experience those in charge of investigating criminal-type offenses have despite their ability to upend the academic lives and futures of so many young people. Sadly, even with the flimsiest of evidence, the power bestowed upon these administrators, investigators, and fact-finders by way of Title IX creates a lethal combination that can define and destroy a student well beyond the four walls of his or her institution of higher education. With that in mind, on the heels of a recent exoneration of a student falsely accused of sexual misconduct and dating violence at a different university, Saland Law is once again pleased to share another victory after a successfully appealing a college’s initial determination that our client violated a no contact order by way of third-party.

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Since starting my career in 2000 as a lawyer in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office and establishing a successful criminal defense firm that has grown into servicing other areas of law, I have become all too familiar with the gravity and magnitude a criminal accusation can and does have upon a person and his or her family. More specifically, as my law practice grew into representing clients involved in university and college Title IX and code of conduct investigations, I quickly learned that even beyond a criminal case, any allegation is overwhelming. When the target or subject of misconduct is a young person – a college, university, or high school student – an allegation that he or she violated a school’s Title IX policies against dating violence, sexual harassment, or some other infraction involving the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) amendments to the Cleary Act, the emotional burden for a client is often at its greatest. Why? Without an adult’s life experience, lack of a local support structure or fear of involving parents, and perception that their “life is over”, these teens or twenty-somethings find themselves in a place of despair, facing a stained academic career with the real possibility of suspension or expulsion, and a future life and career on the precipice.

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College Title IX lawyers and student misconduct attorneys representing clients in cases alleging gender-based misconduct and dating violence accusations know firsthand how the system is not one founded in due process. Simply, university violations, from NYU and Columbia to Pace and Fordham, not only lack the checks and balances taken for granted in the criminal justice system but are enforced by university administrators often lacking the investigative experience necessary to pursue the right leads and effectively parse through the evidence. Couple these factors with a legal threshold that is not beyond a reasonable doubt but a preponderance of the evidence, the subject of an accusation is often left without the tools and recourse necessary to defend him or herself. Fortunately, for a client falsely accused of a horrific rape that morphed into claims she was a monster-like stalker and manipulative predator, after a five month long investigation and ultimate adjudication, the college exonerate our client. Only slightly less gratifying, the college found that the accuser was in fact the abuser leading to a responsible finding and multi-year hold on her diploma post-graduation.

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When, as a college student, you are accused of violating a Title IX policy or the Code of Conduct of your respective university, both your academic career and otherwise clean criminal record are often put in harm’s way. Whether or not you are arrested by the NYPD or local police department, accused of a crime or allegedly committed a form of sexual or gender-based misconduct or harassment, the consequences are quite real even if your case never reaches a technical disciplinary hearing. What is not real, however, is that every claim of wrongdoing is true and accurate. While the legal standard employed by Title IX Coordinators, the Dean of Students, or any administrative body at a New York City or New York State college or university is a preponderance of the evidence  – quite lower than the criminal threshold of proof beyond a reasonable doubt and devoid of the due process rights we all take for granted – that does not mean you cannot successfully challenge a complaint. In fact, having successfully represented student accusers and the accused in college Title IX, Student Misconduct Hearings, Disciplinary Hearings and other infractions at universities such as NYU, Fordham, CUNY, SUNY Binghamton, Columbia and others, Saland Law PC’s Title IX counsel recognize there are strategic avenues to pursue should you find yourself on either side of the law. In fact, a recent and successful resolution of multiple alleged Title IX violations against a student at a large New York City university is a testament to the advocacy of Saland Law PC’s Title IX attorneys.

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