Colleges in New Jersey are known for vigorously enforcing their code of conduct and pursuing disciplinary violations, especially allegations of sexual misconduct that implicate Title IX. If you have been accused, it can feel like the investigation and hearing process that your school uses is actually designed to find that you committed a violation.
Filing a complaint with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) can be the best way to ensure that your rights and protected in these situations. Hiring an OCR complaint lawyer like Joseph D. Lento can be the best way to bring them into your case.
The Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Education
The OCR is one of the agencies that make up the U.S. Department of Education. Responsible for enforcing a handful of federal laws that protect the rights of students, the OCR can be brought in to supervise your case by lodging a complaint with the agency and convincing them that your rights have been violated by your school.
This complaint has to be filed within 180 days of the alleged violation, and has to be effective or else the OCR will refuse to exercise its jurisdiction over your case.
OCR Investigations in New Jersey
If your complaint does manage to convince the OCR to review your case, their investigation will look into each one of the allegations that you lay out in your complaint. This can lead the OCR to scrutinize important and personal documents and investigate pertinent people who were involved in your case.
If your school retaliates or intimidates you in any way during this investigation, it can serve as grounds for another OCR complaint and spawn a separate investigation from the agency.
When the OCR's investigation has concluded, the office will send a letter of findings to both you and to your school. If the investigation revealed that your school violated your rights, the OCR will push for mediation as a way of finding a resolution to the problem. If your school refuses to participate, the OCR can pursue administrative sanctions that can implicate your school's federal funding.
Settling a Case Through Facilitated Resolution
Once OCR gets implicated in a case, though, most schools decide that they want to settle it. This is why OCR has Facilitated Resolution Between the Parties, a settlement procedure that helps schools and students come to a mutually beneficial resolution. While the OCR will not endorse an agreement that comes from Facilitated Resolution, if your school subsequently violates the terms of the settlement, it can lead to another OCR complaint and investigation.
Joseph D. Lento Can Help in the OCR Complaint Process
Joseph D. Lento is a student discipline defense lawyer who represents students who have been accused of Title IX violations and can help aggrieved students call to the OCR for help in protecting their rights. An effective, timely, and convincing OCR complaint can make a huge difference in the outcome of your case if you have been accused of a Title IX violation of a disciplinary violation in New Jersey. Contact him online or by phone at 888-535-3686 for the help you need.
New Jersey colleges and universities where Joseph D. Lento can help you or your student file a Title IX complaint with the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights include, but are not limited to, the following schools:
Students and parents at times do not realize until after a finding of responsibility and the imposition of adverse sanctions that sexual misconduct allegations at college can result in severe consequences academically and professionally and in the short and long-term. The earlier the necessary steps are taken to address a Title IX case, the better, because these are cases that can be won at the school-level. There are times, however, that the help of the Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (DOE-OCR) is needed and Joseph D. Lento has a decade of experience passionately fighting for the futures of his clients at colleges and universities throughout the nation and has helped many clients seek recourse with the DOE-OCR. 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, who helps students in New Jersey with DOE-OCR Title IX complaints, is admitted as an attorney pro hac vice in state and federal court if needed when representing clients nationwide, and serves as a Title IX advisor to students facing disciplinary cases in New Jersey and throughout the nation. Make certain your or your student's interests are protected - Contact National Title IX attorney Joseph D. Lento today.
