If you found your way here, it means you're almost certainly in some sort of serious trouble. You've already endured an investigation and a hearing at the University of Washington. You probably decided not to hire an attorney. Maybe you were worried your parents would find out about your case. Maybe you didn't think you'd wind up with a serious sanction. Maybe you did hire an attorney, but you hired a local or family attorney, someone inexperienced with campus judicial procedures.
It turns out the sanction is serious—suspension or dismissal. You've realized you can't simply transfer to another school, that wherever you apply is going to have a record of the University of Washington's findings.
The good news is that you do have one last chance: an appeal. And you've realized that you need help. Who do you contact for that help?
The Lento Law Firm was established to protect student rights. We're defense attorneys, but we're not just any defense attorneys. Our Student Defense Team knows education law, and we know how the University of Washington's administrative and judicial systems operate. We've helped hundreds of students get the fair treatment they deserve and avoid serious sanctions.
What can we do for you? Find out by calling 888-535-3686, or use our online questionnaire to tell us more about your case. Don't wait, though. UW gives you just twenty-one days to file an appeal. We need to start now.
The Appeals Process at the University of Washington
It can be hard to recognize this if you've already been found “Responsible for” (guilty of) a misconduct offense and been issued a sanction like suspension or dismissal, but the University of Washington does want justice to be done in your case. That's why the school conducted a thorough investigation into the allegations against you. That's why you were allowed to make your case at a hearing. You were given a number of due process rights as well, such as the right to review evidence in the case, the right to choose an advisor and to choose an attorney to serve in this role, and the right to a presumption of “Not Responsible” (innocence).
The right to appeal is a further attempt on the part of the university to make sure you are treated fairly and that you receive the appropriate outcome.
Make no mistake, though: an appeal—or, as UW refers to it, an “Administrative Review”—is not a chance to further argue your case. That's what the hearing was for. As the name implies, this is a “review” of how the case was handled to ensure that no mistakes were made. To make sure you aren't simply re-arguing your case, UW requires that you have sufficient “grounds” for an appeal before it will conduct a review. The university recognizes four specific grounds for appeal in disciplinary cases:
- Some errors occurred in the process that might have affected the outcome of the case.
- Some new evidence has been discovered that wasn't available at the time of the hearing and that, again, might have affected the case outcome.
- The sanction imposed on you was disproportionate to the nature of the offense.
- There is some other reason that the outcome was unfair.
Assuming you can establish grounds for an appeal, you face additional hurdles. Perhaps the largest of these is the simple fact that you don't have all the rights you had before. You don't, for example, have the right to a presumption of innocence. You have been found guilty, and any review officer who examines your case must begin with that presumption. It is your responsibility to prove your case deserves reexamination.
Nevertheless, you do have some important factors working in your favor.
- The review officer or officers are allowed to consider all aspects of your case, including how the investigation was conducted, what evidence was used to determine your guilt, and all witness testimony.
- Further, review officers are allowed to decide your case as though they were members of the hearing committee. They are not restricted merely to deciding matters of procedure.
- If there are multiple review officers, your case can be decided by a majority opinion.
Keep in mind that university hearing panels are fallible as well. You didn't face a prosecutor with a law degree and a judge with years of experience on the bench. You faced a chemistry professor, an English T.A., and maybe a fourth-year mathematics major. Mistakes can and do happen under those circumstances. If you know you are innocent or believe you were mistreated in some way by the process, you may very well be able to prove it, with the right help.
You do need help, though. If you tried to defend yourself before, you almost certainly found that out. Your Lento Law Firm attorney can work with you to develop grounds for appeal. They'll help you identify and organize evidence to support those grounds. They'll draft your appeal with you and make sure it's clear and persuasive. Most important of all, they'll monitor the process and ensure that you're treated fairly from start to finish. And should you be granted a new hearing? They'll be on hand to help you mount your full case.
Fight for Your Future
Let's be clear: we cannot promise to win your case. No one can do that. The truth is that, at this point, you are 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. 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 the University of Washington is just twenty-one 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.
