If you are a student attending a college or university located in the Washington DC area – which includes portions of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia – it's likely your school has given you some information about its Title IX reporting, investigation, and resolution process. Until that process impacts you personally, however, you may not have paid close attention to how it operates and how difficult your life can become if you have been accused of Title IX-related misconduct.
The LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team understands the complicated and changing Title IX requirements. Our attorneys regularly defend students accused of Title IX misconduct by schools all across the country, including in the Washington DC metro area. To learn more about how our experienced Title IX attorneys can help you, call us at 888.535.3686 to schedule a confidential consultation.
What is Title IX?
While Title IX was originally passed to address discrimination based on sex by schools when it came to admitting and providing the same opportunities to male and female students, its protections have grown over the past 50+ years. Schools are now required to enforce Title IX's protections by disciplining students who discriminate based on sex, sexual orientation, sexual identity, and pregnancy or parenting status. Schools risk fines or loss of federal funding if they fail to adequately enforce Title IX on campus.
Enforcing Title IX has become complicated in recent years. Each presidential administration seems to want to put its own stamp on Title IX, and as a result, the rules and regulations that apply to what standards are to be enforced and how schools are supposed to enforce those standards frequently change. Schools are left to scramble to keep up with these changes, and to put systems in place to meet the Title IX requirements.
The result: schools frequently make mistakes when investigating Title IX complaints and disciplining students accused of Title IX misconduct. Because of the risk of fines or loss of federal funding, the mistakes schools make rarely benefit the accused students. Instead, schools will disregard the accused student's rights, apply their own systems and standards unequally, and unfairly punish students accused of Title IX misconduct.
Protecting Yourself in a Title IX Case
As a student enrolled in one of the many colleges and universities in the DC metropolitan area, you understand how important your education is to your future. Whether you're at a school based in the District itself, such as Georgetown, Howard, George Washington, American, or Catholic, or you're enrolled in a school nearby, such as University of Maryland in College Park, or George Mason in Arlington, you know how hard you've worked to get to where you are. Learning that someone has filed a Title IX complaint against you and that your school is beginning a Title IX investigation against you can be a shock. It may be hard to focus on your studies when you're filled with questions about what's going to happen next, and how your future will be affected by your Title IX case.
The best way to protect yourself when you're the target of a Title IX investigation or disciplinary proceeding is to get help from an experienced Title IX attorney. At the LLF Law Firm, our Student Defense Team is made up of attorneys who have years of experience defending students in Title IX cases. We understand the changing Title IX rules and regulations; the school procedures for investigating and disciplining students accused of Title IX misconduct; and how to protect against the kinds of mistakes that schools regularly make when pursuing Title IX cases. We'll focus on your Title IX case so that you can focus on your studies. We'll communicate on your behalf with your school's Title IX office, including negotiating with the office on your behalf. We'll prepare you for any interview with your school's Title IX investigator. Where necessary, we'll conduct our own investigation into the claims made against you. And if there is a Title IX hearing, we will vigorously defend you and fight to protect your rights.
All of these steps are most effective when they are part of a coordinated defense led by someone with years of experience defending students from Title IX claims. At the LLF Law Firm, our Student Defense Team has that experience and is ready to be there for you when you need us most.
Stages of a Title IX Case
The Title IX Misconduct Report
Title IX cases typically begin with a complaint filed by a student against another student or, sometimes, against a school employee such as a faculty member. All schools in the metropolitan DC area have Title IX offices and websites where Title IX complaints can be filed. Georgetown University, for example, has a “PASS: Sexual Misconduct Reporting Portal” where anyone who “believes that they have been subject to sexual misconduct, or who would like to report on behalf of another person” can submit a complaint. The University of Maryland – College Park has a similar reporting page for “allegations of sexual misconduct or discrimination.” George Mason University in Arlington, Virginia, lists the types of misconduct that students can report, including sexual assault, stalking, sexual exploitation, sexual or gender-based harassment, and others. It provides links to both non-confidential and confidential portals for making Title IX misconduct reports.
The Title IX Investigation
Once a Title IX misconduct report is received by the school's Title IX office, the office will review it to make sure it is reporting misconduct that is covered by Title IX. Assuming it does so, the matter will then be assigned to an investigator associated with the school's Title IX office. Depending on the school and the regulations in force at the time, the investigator may also be the school's designated Title IX coordinator. In most cases, however, the investigator will be someone other than the school's Title IX coordinator.
The parties involved in the case will be notified by the school's Title IX office and will be provided with information about the complaint as well as other information required by the Title IX rules and regulations that are then in effect. The list of information that Catholic University provides in its notice is typical and includes not only information about the complaint itself but also about the rights of each party during the investigation and related code of conduct provisions that the parties need to be aware of during the process.
At this early stage, the person who filed the Title IX complaint may also receive support from the school. At Howard University, for example, the school will meet with the person who filed the complaint and give them information about support services available from the school. These include “advocacy, counseling services, academic and residential accommodations, and healthcare services.”
Schools may take other actions even during this early stage – ones that can have a significant impact on the accused student's college experience. For example, the school may also issue “no-contact” orders that prohibit the accused student from contacting the complainant. If the two students live in the same dormitory, the accused student may be required to move to another dorm or may even be evicted from student housing entirely while the investigation is proceeding. If the two students attend the same class session, the accused student may be forced to move to another section or to take their studies online. Students who work on campus together may have their shifts staggered, or the accused student may be moved to a completely different work assignment. In some cases, the accused student may receive a forced “leave of absence” while the investigation is pending, which is essentially a suspension in everything except the name.
In addition to these interim remedies, there is the investigation. Both the complainant and the accused will be interviewed. The investigator may also meet with others who may have information that relates to the accusations. The investigator may seek photos, videos, text messages, social media posts, emails, voicemails, and other communications and materials that may relate to the allegations made in the Title IX report. When the investigator has finished, they will prepare a report. Typically, both the complainant and the accused will have a chance to review the investigator's report and provide comments on that report to the school's Title IX office.
The Formal Title IX Complaint
The school's Title IX office will review the investigator's report and determine whether the evidence gathered by the investigator (as commented on by the complainant and the accused) supports bringing a formal Title IX complaint against the accused student. If it does not, the school will end the matter there, though the complainant will have the chance to appeal that decision.
In most cases, the Title IX investigation results in formal charges being filed against the accused student. These charges will list the conduct that the school considers to support the allegations against the student. The charges may also propose a particular form of discipline against the accused student. The accused student will have an opportunity to respond to the formal complaint.
Negotiations
During this period, your Title IX attorney may attempt to negotiate with the school's Title IX office on your behalf. This is where it can be extremely helpful to be working with an experienced Title IX attorney, one who can point out any mistakes that the school has made in applying its own Title IX policies, who can provide the school with any evidence that its Title IX investigator may have “missed,” and who can remind the school of its obligation to treat its students fairly. Many Title IX cases are resolved through negotiations, avoiding both the stress and the uncertainty of a hearing.
Hearings
If you aren't able to resolve your case through negotiations, it will likely proceed to a formal hearing. The structure of these hearings can vary depending on the Title IX rules and regulations that apply at any given time and how your school has interpreted those rules and regulations. These can affect whether you appear before a hearing panel made up of three or more individuals, or before a single “decisionmaker.”
The rules and regulations can also affect the type of hearing that takes place – it may be “live,” with both sides present and witnesses appearing in person, similar to a court hearing. Or it may take place in stages, with one side appearing before the panel or decisionmaker at a time. The rules can also affect whether your attorney is allowed to ask questions directly, or whether questions must be proposed to the hearing officer or officers who then will ask them. If you're working with a Title IX attorney from the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team, you will have the security of knowing that your attorney understands the rules and procedures that are then in effect, both at the federal level and as they are applied by your school.
The standard for making a decision in a Title IX case is significantly lower than the standard that applies in criminal cases. Instead of “beyond a reasonable doubt,” a student accused of Title IX misconduct can be found responsible if the hearing panel or officer decides that it was “more likely than not” that the student committed the misconduct. In other words, if it's 51% likely that the student committed the misconduct, the student will be found responsible.
Working with an experienced Title IX attorney during the hearing process can make a significant difference in the outcome of your case. Whether by reminding the hearing officer or officers of their obligations under Title IX and the school's own policies, or by crafting questions for witnesses designed to help show issues with their testimony, or by introducing evidence on your behalf, your Title IX attorney can effectively challenge the evidence introduced against you.
Written Decision
The Title IX hearing officer or officers will issue a written decision following the hearing. If this goes against you, it will also state the sanction that is being applied in your case. Because many Title IX cases result in the accused student being suspended or expelled from the school, they are often appealed.
Appeal
Your school's Title IX rules will have an appeal procedure that should follow the current Title IX rules and regulations for appeals. But unlike a court case, where you appeal to a different court, in a Title IX case you appeal to the same school that just ruled against you. The odds are thus not in your favor, but an appeal may not be the end of the road.
Lawsuit
As noted above, it's not unusual for schools to almost bend over backwards to provide help and support to students who file Title IX complaints while at the same time ignoring or curtailing the rights of accused students. When this goes too far, it can form the basis for a lawsuit against the school for violating the accused student's rights. Your Title IX attorney will advise you whether your case would support such a lawsuit; they have become increasingly common as schools continue to disregard the rights of accused students.
The LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team Can Help You With Your Title IX Case in the DC Area
If you're a college student enrolled at a school in the National Capital Region and have been notified that you've been accused of a Title IX violation, you need the help of an experienced Title IX attorney. The attorneys from the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team are ready to help. We understand the federal and school rules, regulations, and procedures that apply to Title IX cases and know how to fight to protect your rights and to defend you from the accusations you're facing.
The best way to learn more about how the LLF Law Firm's Student Defense Team can help you is to call us at 888.535.3686 to schedule a confidential consultation. Tell us about your case, and let us share with you the ways we can help you protect your college career and your future.
