Earlier this year, a federal magistrate judge in Harrisonburg, Virginia issued a decision recommending that state college James Madison University (JMU) pay almost $850,000 in attorneys’ fees and court costs to the pseudonymous “John Doe,” a student whom the school wrongly punished for an assault which a Title IX tribunal a year earlier had declined […]
Category: Federal Lawsuits
Colleges Settle Federal Lawsuits by Students Expelled on Sexual Misconduct Charges
Disciplinary Measures for Sexual Misconduct Charges Come Under Review I have previously written about a state court decision striking down a public college’s disciplinary procedures as fundamentally flawed and unfair. More recently, two private colleges have made out-of-court settlements in increasingly common federal lawsuits brought against them by students disciplined or expelled over allegations of […]
Suit Challenges DOE Procedure Mandates for College Sex Misconduct Cases
A recent University of Virginia (UVA) law graduate’s new lawsuit attacks the procedural standards for dealing with sexual misconduct cases the Department of Education (DOE) mandates for the nation’s colleges and universities. If successful, the lawsuit could Title IX enforcers to back off their aggressive readings of the specific procedures colleges and universities must use […]
Advice to College Lawyers on Handling Students’ Sex Misconduct Cases Proves Controversial
The National Association of College and University Attorneys (NACUA) stirred controversy last year by publishing advice from a prominent law firm on ways colleges and universities can protect themselves against increasingly numerous and complex lawsuits filed by students involved in campus sexual misconduct hearings. The 18-page article, “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: A […]