You came here looking for information on how to appeal a University of Chicago disciplinary decision. We’ll get into some of the ins and outs of the process below, but there are a few things you need to know now, right up front. 

  • The situation is serious. If the university has decided to dismiss you, you’ll find it difficult, if not impossible, to find another school to accept you. You’re looking at the end of your academic career. Even if you’re not being expelled, though, a lesser sanction on your record can make it hard to get into grad schools and hard to start your career.  
  • You can, and you should appeal any case you’ve lost. You have nothing to lose by doing so and everything to gain. 
  • You need to act quickly. The University of Chicago gives you just fifteen days from the end of your original hearing to file an appeal. An appeal takes a lot of preparation, and fifteen days is not a lot of time. 
  • You don’t want to try to take on the University of Chicago by yourself. Never mind that the stakes are high. Never mind that the University of Chicago is a weighty institution. An appeal is a complicated undertaking. You have to make fine distinctions about what University of Chicago policy has to say; you have to understand the intricacies of the university’s judicial system. Maybe you even lost your original case because you tried to handle it on your own. This time around, make sure you have someone on your side who has the background and experience to take on a major university. 

The LLF National Law Firm was built to help students defend themselves. Our Student Defense Team has worked with hundreds of students on every type of case, and we’re well-versed in how the University Chicago appeals process operates. We can’t promise to win your case. An appeal is always an uphill battle. It’s a battle worth fighting, though, and we’re ready to fight it with you. Again, you need to act quickly. To find out what we can do, call the LLF National Law Firm today at 888-535-3686 or fill out our online questionnaire and tell us a little about your case.  

The Appeals Process at the University of Chicago 

From the beginning of your case, you’ve had some important due process rights. The University of Chicago treated you as “innocent until proven guilty,” for example, and you’ve had the chance to review all the evidence in the case. You were allowed a support person during the investigation and hearing, and you were allowed to choose a lawyer to fill that role.  

You still have one important due process right: the right to a review of your case. That means that, at this point, such a review is your very best option.  

As we’ve already mentioned, an appeal is no easy proposition. You had a lot more going for you in the original hearing. At this point, your back is up against the wall. For instance, you aren’t allowed to just appeal the hearing outcome because you don’t like it. You must have “grounds” for a review. Reviews are only for the purpose of correcting clear mistakes in the original proceedings. 

  • You can request a review if you can show that there were clear errors in the procedures; 
  • You can request a review if you should discover new evidence that could have an impact on the outcome of the case; 
  • You can request a review by arguing that the sanction is disproportionate to the nature of the offense. 

There are other important aspects of the review process that differ significantly from what you faced during your original hearing. 

  • You are not entitled to any type of official proceedings. That is, you will not have a chance to make a presentation or to address the Review Board directly. 
  • Unless you have discovered new evidence that has some direct bearing on your case, the Review Board will not consider any evidence other than the record of the original hearing.  
  • You no longer have a presumption of innocence. You have been found Responsible for an offense. This means the burden on you is to prove that there is some reason why you deserve a new hearing. 

The fact that you face a number of significant obstacles does not mean you should not file a review request. Again, you have nothing to lose, especially if you have been suspended or dismissed by the University of Chicago. Students can and do win appeals, and when they do, they’re entitled to a new hearing.  

However, you cannot expect to succeed with your review without some type of help. You need an attorney, and not just any attorney. You need someone who understands the situation, not just what’s at stake but how campus judicial systems operate. You need someone who works in the area of educational law and who has experience representing student clients. You need someone from the LLF National Law Firm. 

One Final Option: Direct Negotiation 

An appeal is your best option at this point, but there is one other possibility should you lose your appeal: direct negotiation with the University of Chicago administration. The difficulty in such instances is in convincing administrators that it is in their interest to negotiate with you. That is a significant hurdle, but you do have one advantage over other students in your position: you have an LLF National Law Firm attorney on your side. 

The LLF National Law Firm was built to deal with student issues, and we spend a part of every day talking with university faculty and administrators. In addition, we deal with many attorneys who serve as Office of General Counsel for schools like the University of Chicago. The Office of General Counsel is an attorney or a firm hired by a university to offer legal advice. As a result of these relationships, we have a strong sense of why schools make the decisions that they do. We know what motivates administrators to act. We use this in every case to help guide our defense strategies. We can also sometimes leverage who and what we know to convince a university to reconsider a case extrajudicially. In some cases, we have been able to negotiate deals that let students graduate or, at a minimum, remove negative notations from their transcripts. 

Fight For Your Future 

We said in the beginning, but it bears repeating: 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. 

Don’t wait, though. Again, the University of Chicago gives you just fifteen days to file your appeal. Call the LLF National Law Firm today at 888-535-3686 or use our online form.   

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