In April of 2024, the Department of Education approved New Title IX rules, which are scheduled to take effect on August 1, 2024. Our firm is closely monitoring ongoing challenges to these new rules in court, and is working hard to provide you the most up-to-date information. Click here to learn about the current state of Title IX and how we can help if you are facing accusations.
If you're a student at a college or university in Illinois and you're facing a Title IX hearing, many steps have to be taken well in advance of the hearing. Prior to the hearing, the school will prepare an investigation report. Prior to it being finalized and present it to the hearing panel, the report has to be responded to as comprehensively and as effectively as possible. All necessary documentation, information, evidence would need to be included in that final investigation report. It may have to include text messages between the parties, social media posts, a toxicology report or forensic evaluation.
That final investigation report will ultimately be presented to the panel and a panel will have a strong sense of the case before the hearing takes place. For the hearing itself at a minimum, an opening and closing statement would have to be prepared. Questions for all witnesses would have to be prepared. A party would have to be prepared for possible pitfalls or missteps to be on the lookout for during the hearing itself. Any bias or conflict of the hearing panel would have to be considered before the hearing takes place. Many steps have to be taken to ensure a fair and favorable outcome at a Title IX hearing.
