Every college in New Hampshire prohibits academic misconduct. While they all define misconduct slightly differently, all schools prohibit things like forging transcripts, plagiarizing graded papers, or cheating on exams by using unauthorized materials.
Students accused of breaking these rules tend to rely on the academic misconduct hearing to show their innocence. However, the inexperience of these panels often shows itself in inaccurate determinations of a student's guilt. Appealing these bad outcomes is essential for preserving an aggrieved student's professional future, and often takes the skills of an academic appeal advisor like Joseph D. Lento.
Why Misconduct Hearings are So Prone to Error in New Hampshire
The academic misconduct hearing is often one of the most important parts of a college student's career. There, a panel of judges will hear evidence for and against a student's innocence of a charge of academic misconduct. An adverse outcome can saddle the student's academic record with a blemish that will set them back as they enter the working world.
Despite the importance of this hearing, colleges in New Hampshire are more interested in making it appear unbiased than they are in making it unbiased. Stocking the panel with members of the faculty, staff, and student body is supposed to send a signal to accused students that their interests are represented on the hearing board. However, the result is a hearing panel that is poorly designed, too inexperienced to produce reliably accurate results, and prone to accepting faulty or even irrelevant evidence of guilt over solid and persuasive evidence of innocence.
The Necessity and Difficulty of Lodging an Appeal
Most colleges in New Hampshire recognize the fact that their hearing panels are going to fail from time to time, and so provide avenues of appeal for students who think the outcome was incorrect. However, many of these schools also put procedural hurdles in the way, in an attempt to keep as many cases as possible finalized after only one hearing.
Different schools use different procedural barriers. However, a common one in New Hampshire is to require appeals to show that a specific set of circumstances has arisen that requires a rehearing like new evidence has turned up, or the lower hearing panel was clearly biased in some way.
Satisfying these requirements without hurting your chances of success on appeal is something that an academic appeal advisor can help you do.
Joseph D. Lento: Academic Appeal Advisor Serving New Hampshire
A student discipline defense lawyer by trade, Joseph D. Lento can represent students in New Hampshire who have been found in violation of their college's code of academic integrity. With his help, aggrieved students who know that they are innocent can appeal their case to a more legitimate and reliable hearing board.
Utilizing your right to appeal an adverse outcome at the misconduct hearing is essential. Your professional future is at stake. Call attorney Joseph D. Lento at (888) 535-3686 or contact him online for the legal help that you need to protect your interests and future.
- Chester College of New England
- Colby Sawyer College
- Daniel Webster College
- Dartmouth College
- Franklin Pierce University
- Granite State College
- Great Bay Community College
- Hesser College
- Keene State College
- Lakes Region Community College
- Lebanon College
- Manchester Community College
- Nashua Community College
- New England College
- New Hampshire Institute of Art
- NHTI Concord's Community College
- Northeast Catholic College
- Plymouth State University
- River Valley Community College
- Rivier College
- Saint Anselm College
- Southern New Hampshire University
- St. Joseph School of Nursing
- Thomas More College of Liberal Arts
- University of New Hampshire at Manchester
- University of New Hampshire Main Campus
- White Mountains Community College
Regrettably, an academic misconduct finding of responsibility can derail an accused student's academic and professional goals and some students and parents do not recognize this concern until it may be too late. If a student is found responsible for academic misconduct charges, in addition to the short-term consequences such academic and disciplinary sanctions, there will be long-term consequences. Internships, graduate school opportunities, and employment opportunities can all be adversely impacted by a finding of responsibility.
For these reasons and more, it is critical to properly address such concerns as early as possible in the disciplinary process. There are times, however, that it necessary to appeal an adverse outcome, and Joseph D. Lento and the Lento Law Firm have unparalleled experience passionately fighting for the futures of his clients at universities and colleges in New Hampshire and throughout the nation. He does not settle for the easiest outcome, and instead prioritizes his clients' needs and well-being. Joseph Lento is a licensed attorney in New Jersey and New York, is admitted as an attorney pro hac vice in state and federal court if needed when representing clients nationwide, and serves as an academic misconduct advisor to students facing disciplinary cases in New Hampshire and throughout the nation. Make certain your or your student's interests are protected at all stages of the academic misconduct disciplinary process, including the appeal stage - Contact National Academic Misconduct Advisor Joseph D. Lento today at 888-535-3686.
