If you've managed to find your way to this page, you're in trouble, maybe pretty serious trouble. Maybe you didn't think so when you were initially charged with misconduct, when Stony Brook conducted its investigation, or even while you were defending yourself at the hearing. Maybe that's why you chose not to hire an attorney to help you with your case.
You get it now, though. At this point, you've been found Responsible for an offense and been assigned a sanction, probably either suspension or dismissal
All is not lost just yet, though. Under Stony Brook policies, you have the right to appeal the hearing outcome, either the finding, the sanction, or both. We can help. Who are we? The Lento Law Firm's Student Defense Team was founded to protect student rights, and over the years, we've helped hundreds of students just like you to get the justice they deserve. We know how Stony Brook's judicial processes work, including how to file appeals. No one in the country gives you a better chance at getting your career at Stony Brook back on track.
Finding this page, though, isn't enough. You have to contact us, and you have to do it quickly. You have just seven calendar days to file your appeal, and there's plenty of work to be done. Don't wait. Call 888-535-3686 now, or use our online questionnaire to tell us more about your case.
The Appeals Process at Stony Brook University
If you're trying to decide whether or not to appeal your hearing outcome, let us help with that decision: you absolutely should. The truth is that there's simply too much at risk not to. If you've been suspended or dismissed, it'll be difficult or impossible to graduate from Stony Brook. And even if you do manage to earn your diploma, you'll have to deal with a transcript notation about the nature of your offense every time you apply to a job, an internship, or another school.
Stony Brook does want justice to be done, even if it doesn't seem like it to you right now. You're still smarting from the verdict and frustrated with how you were treated. You were afforded some important due process protections during your investigation and hearing, though. You were treated as innocent—Not Responsible—until the point when you were proven guilty. You were allowed to review all evidence in the case.
For all this, your chances for justice are far slimmer now than when you started. So, too, are your due process rights. Almost the only thing left to you is the right to appeal.
In addition, the process this time around is more difficult.
- The burden of proof is on you. You have now been proven Responsible for an offense, and in order to get a new hearing, you have to demonstrate that the university made some kind of mistake in your case.
- Appeals aren't decided by a committee but rather by a single administrative official.
- You have no right to address this official directly. They may never even meet you, which puts you at a significant disadvantage. Your entire case rests on the persuasiveness of your written appeal.
- The administrative official won't consider anything other than the hearing record unless you've discovered significant new evidence.
- Even if you win your appeal, you've not been proven innocent. The best case scenario is that the official orders a new hearing, and you re-present your case, this time with the Lento Law Firm attorney beside you.
As if all this wasn't enough, you're also limited in terms of what sorts of arguments you can make. You are no longer arguing for your innocence or trying to justify why you did what you did. You're arguing about whether or not you were treated fairly. In fact, arguments aren't even called arguments. Instead, you're asserting "grounds" for an appeal, specific reasons why you deserve a new hearing. There are only three acceptable grounds at Stony Brook.
- Some significant mistake occurred in the procedures, or you were denied a significant due process right that could have affected the hearing outcome.
- New information has come to light since the conclusion of the hearing that could potentially alter the outcome of the hearing.
- The university has issued a sanction that is demonstrably disproportionate to the nature of the offense.
None of these challenges should dissuade you from filing your appeal. You have the right to appeal, and you have nothing to lose by doing so. It's also true that students can and do win appeals. The simple fact is that campus justice is never airtight. Perfectly innocent students wind up accused of misconduct all the time. The process itself is conducted by faculty and students who, while they may be smart in their subjects, aren't trained adjudicators. Punishments have grown all out of proportion over the last several years.
You absolutely should fight for your future. You just don't want to do it alone.
You need the Lento Law Firm attorney to help you build your case. We'll go over the hearing record with a fine-toothed comb, and we'll look for any possible new evidence that could exonerate you. If there are grounds for an appeal, we'll find it. Then, we'll organize your best arguments and evidence into a compelling appeal document. We're on your side, and we'll do everything in our power to make sure you're treated fairly.
Fight For Your Future
We won't sugarcoat it: you're in a difficult situation with limited options. You don't have a lot of rights left to you, and you've already been found “Responsible” for an offense. Given those parameters, we can't promise to win your appeal. No one can. Here's what we can promise you, though: no one gives you a better chance of winning your appeal than the Lento 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 to your benefit. If you know you are innocent, if you believe you've been treated unfairly, we can help.
You cannot afford to wait, though. The window for filing your appeal at Stony Brook University is just seven days. That's not a lot of time to build your defense. Contact the Lento Law Firm today at 888-535-3686 or use our online form.
