You found yourself accused of misconduct. It doesn’t really matter whether the accusations had to do with cheating, trespassing, or sexual assault. You didn’t take it seriously enough. You figured it would be easy to defend yourself, and even if things went terribly wrong, you’d maybe get a slap on the wrist. Maybe you didn’t want to get your parents involved, and doing something like hiring an attorney to help you would definitely have meant getting your parents involved.
You lost your case, though, and the sanction wasn’t a slap on the wrist. It was something far more serious—suspension maybe, or dismissal. You’re finally looking for help. That’s a good thing. You’re going to need it. The situation is much worse than it was before, and you’re looking at a harder fight. At this point, though, you don’t really have much choice, though. Dismissal means the end of your career at USC, and even suspension or a lesser sanction will go on your transcript. That’ll likely cost you the chance to transfer or get into graduate school. It may cost you some years in establishing your career.
You’re not alone this time. You’ve found us. The LLF National Law Firm was founded to help students get the fair treatment they deserve. We’ve represented hundreds of students, defending them from all types of charges, from simple cheating to theft to stalking. We know the law, and we know the USC judicial system. So, while you have a lot going against you right now, you do have this one thing going for you: no one is more capable of getting you the justice you deserve than the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team.
You need to act quickly, though. You have just ten business days from the end of your hearing to file your appeal, and there’s a lot to do. Don’t wait. Contact the LLF National Law Firm today at 888-535-3686, or use our online questionnaire to tell us a little about your case.
The Appeals Process at USC
USC gives accused students a number of important rights. Before it can issue you a sanction, the university must provide you with a thorough investigation and a chance to defend yourself at a hearing. You were initially presumed “Not Responsible” (innocent). You had the chance to review all the evidence in your case. You were allowed an advisor at your hearing, and you were able to choose an attorney to serve in that position.
You’ve used up a lot of those rights already. The one still remaining is the right to appeal the hearing outcome. Of course, your rights were never unlimited. For example, decision-makers in your case didn’t have to find your Responsible “beyond a reasonable doubt.” They were able to use a lesser standard, “preponderance of the evidence,” to make their ruling. The same is true now. You have the right to appeal, but you don’t don’t have carte blanch. You must have sufficient “grounds.” At USC, there are four possible bases for an appeal.
- New evidence has become available that wasn’t available at the time of the original hearing and that could have had an impact on the outcome.
- The sanction imposed is disproportionate to the nature of the offense.
- Some procedural errors occurred that could have impacted the hearing outcome.
- The conclusions of the decision-makers are not supported by the evidence in the case.
Simply meeting the burden of grounds for appeal can be difficult, but you’ll face other challenges as well.
- You are no longer entitled to a presumption of innocence. The fact is, once you lost your hearing, the presumption changed to one of guilt.
- You are not entitled to a hearing as part of the appeals process. That means you may not address the appeal panel or call witnesses to testify. Decisions are based solely on the documentary record of the original hearing and any appeals materials you may submit.
In short, you face an upward battle, and you might as well know that now. Does that mean the situation is hopeless? By no means. Universities regularly make mistakes when it comes to student discipline. As you well know, your hearing didn’t happen before a seasoned judge. You weren’t being tried by a law-school-trained prosecutor. Instead, you faced faculty members—chemistry professors, sociology T.A.s, and finance instructors. You should challenge their decisions. Students regularly win cases on appeal.
You need to be realistic about your chances, though, and you need to recognize that you can’t handle this situation all on your own. You need help and not just any help. You need someone on your side who’s familiar with education law and understands the USC system. You need someone with experience drafting university appeals. You need someone from the LLF National Law Firm.
One Final Option: Direct Negotiation
Even should you lose your appeal, you have at least one additional option. It is sometimes possible to convince the administration of a university to negotiate directly with you outside of the university’s judicial system. This is yet another reason why you’re better off with an LLF National Law Firm attorney on your side.
It’s no easy task to get a university’s administration to set aside a properly adjudicated verdict and consider alternative resolutions. Administrators must believe there is something in the process that would directly benefit the school. Even before you reach the point of making an argument, though, you need to be able to get your foot in the door. The attorneys at the LLF National Law Firm work with faculty and administrators every day, finding solutions to issues that students face. We also have established relationships with attorneys who serve as the Office of General Counsel for schools like USC. We use these relationships to provide insight into how to navigate campus judicial systems and what strategies are going to be most effective at defending our clients.
Occasionally, we can also use these relationships to find an opening for negotiation. This is never the best option: universities are extremely reluctant to engage with students directly in these cases. We have, however, occasionally been able to negotiate alternative settlements that let our clients finish school or, at a minimum, transfer elsewhere without the stigma of a dismissal finding on their transcript.
Fight For Your Future
We won’t promise you something we can’t deliver. We cannot guarantee you that we’ll win your case. No one can. At this point, you are in a difficult situation with limited options. Here’s what we can promise you, though. No one gives you a better chance of winning than the LLF National Law Firm’s Student Defense Team. No one knows the system the way we do, and no one is better positioned to leverage that system for your benefit.
You cannot afford to wait, though. The University of Southern California gives you just ten days to file your appeal. Contact the LLF National Law Firm today at 888-535-3686 or use our online form.