Search Results for: Class action lawsuit

CLASS-ACTION Lawsuits Filed Against Cal State, UC For Depriving Accused Students of Title IX Due Process

, , , , /

CLASS-ACTION Lawsuits Filed Against Cal State, UC For Depriving Accused Students of Title IX Due Process

When a federal appeals court ruling opened the floodgates to class-action litigation against universities in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee for depriving accused students of due process, a pioneering lawyer took advantage of it. California state courts have also proven friendly to the victims of Title IX kangaroo courts, leading another lawyer to file class-action suits against the 10-campus University of California and 23-campus California State University systems in the past month. And yet again, the Title IX coordinator for the UC system is pledging to ignore judicial orders until forced to comply. The Los Angeles Times reports on the new lawsuits on behalf of UC and Cal State students by Mark Hathaway, who has represented several students in successful actions against their California institutions, public and private.

“This class action seeks to clear the records of those who’ve been wrongfully punished by this deeply flawed disciplinary system,” said Mark Hathaway. The lawsuits mark an emerging strategy by students accused of sexual misconduct to use class-action lawsuits to force universities to set aside, en masse, findings and sanctions that led to their suspension or expulsion. The nation’s first class action was filed July 5 against Michigan State University, followed by Cal State on July 16 and UC this week.

The Cal State and UC lawsuits cover all students who were suspended or expelled since June 2015, when both systems issued new Title IX policies that sought to be more sensitive to victims. Brett Sokolow, president of the Assn. of Title IX Administrators, called class action a “clever approach” that would make legal action accessible to potentially thousands of students unable to afford personal lawsuits. He said more than 300 students across the nation have filed lawsuits challenging their Title IX outcomes, but he estimated that as many as 20,000 students at the nation’s 4,500 colleges may have been disciplined for sexual misconduct.

thecollegefix-Greg Piper latimes-Teresa Watanabe

Read: Andrew Miltenberg Files First Class Action Lawsuit

 

LAWSUIT Seeks Class Action Status for Students Whose Due Process Rights Were Violated During TIX Investigations

, , , /

LAWSUIT Seeks Class Action Status for Students Whose Due Process Rights Were Violated During TIX Investigations

An amended class-action lawsuit filed by a former student against Michigan State University (MSU) could pave the way for more class actions against universities and colleges that violate the due process rights of students accused of sexual misconduct.

Experts say the suit against MSU is a clever legal maneuver that takes advantage of a significant ruling in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judges determined in September 2018 that students accused of sexual assault, or their representatives, had a right to directly question their accuser, which legal experts said would reshape the notion of due process in these cases.

Andrew Miltenberg, the lawyer representing the accused student, amended the complaint this month and requested class-action status. The court would need to be persuaded that enough current or former students accused of sexual misconduct may have been denied due process to justify them as a class. The lawsuit’s success hinges on whether the right to cross-examination was a key factor in every Title IX case at Michigan, said David A. Russcol, a lawyer specializing in Title IX at Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein in Boston. Michigan State could also request that the case not be classified as a class action.

Miltenberg who specializes in Title IX cases, said that they are not seeking money, “but to vacate and expunge disciplinary records for anyone that was put on probation, expelled, or any other type of suspension at Michigan State under the same policy of not being able to question the accuser.” Miltenberg suggested there could potentially be 200 affected students who might benefit from Doe’s case.

“What I hope, more than money or financial damages, is that we stop any erosion of due process, because it is a very slippery slope.” Miltenberg.

reason– Ben McDonald insidehighered– Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

MILTENBERG’s BOLD MOVE: First Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against University (MSU) for Title IX Due Process Violations

, , , /

MILTENBERG’s BOLD MOVE: First Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against University (MSU) for Title IX Due Process Violations

It’s a bold move. The first time anyone tries a new legal approach is, almost invariably, a bold move. It is the first lawsuit in the nation to seek class action status for students accused of sexual assault who’ve been deprived due process; it asks that Michigan State be ordered to vacate or expunge their disciplinary records and reverse or vacate the sanctions levied against those allegedly deprived. The suit filed last year by Andrew Miltenberg, and amended last week, is the first in the nation to seek class-action status and could drastically change the landscape of lawsuits against universities. The lawsuit accuses Michigan State of depriving John Doe of true due process following an accusation that he sexually assaulted a female student. Doe was suspended from the University for two years without being given the opportunity to defend himself in a live hearing where he could directly question his accuser.

“For a long time, people would ask why there wasn’t a class action. There wasn’t a law on the books we could hold a class action on. Now there is, Miltenberg said, referring to the Sixth Circuit’s 2018 ruling. The class action suit defines eligible members of the class as follows: “All MSU students and/or former students, including prospective and future students, subjected to a disciplinary sanction, suspension, or expulsion pursuant to a finding of responsibility under the (sexual violence) Policy (or its predecessor and/or successor policy/policies) without first being afforded a live hearing and opportunity for cross examination.”

“Unfortunately, the misapplication of Title IX has reached new depths at Michigan State,” said Andrew Miltenberg. “Michigan State, in trying to distract attention from its own misdeeds, is consistently and systemically using Title IX as a weapon of law against its accused students, with life-altering consequences for these young men and women.” Every male student accused was denied the same due process as Miltenberg’s  clients, but not every male student had the wherewithal to fight back. Did they not suffer the same denial of due process as his clients? If it was wrong for two, what about the hundreds of other students who, according to the school’s annual Clery Report, suffered the same or similar fates for the same reasons? The years lost to these students, expelled or suspended, tainted so they can’t gain admission elsewhere, and the psychological damage each wrongly punished student suffered may go unremedied in a class action, but at least their record will be expunged and they will no longer have their futures permanently darkened by having been expelled from college as a sex offender… Miltenberg is going out on a limb here for the sake of students who can’t afford to hire him, to challenge their college, to fight back against this outrageously unfair ruination of their lives in the name of gender politics. If successful, this could be huge.

thecollegefix-G.Piper blog.simplejustice-S.Greenfield lawandcrime-J.Lambe freep-D.Jesse

ACLU’s ‘Death Star’ Client in Its Title IX Lawsuit.

, , /

ACLU’s ‘Death Star’ Client in Its Title IX Lawsuit.

The American Civil Liberties Union has been deservedly criticized for its May 14 lawsuit indirectly attacking the civil liberties of students accused of sexual assault, who have since 2011 been subjected to grotesquely unfair campus proceedings that effectively presume their guilt.

Their lawsuit insists that accused students be found guilty even if the evidence of innocence is almost as strong as the evidence of guilt. It also argues for a far more sweeping definition of sexual harassment than the one in the DeVos regulations (which parallels the definition adopted by the Supreme Court). 

The ACLU filed its complaint on behalf of four organizations: Know Your IX, Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates Inc., Girls for Gender Equity, and Stop Sexual Assault in Schools. The latter three groups have played a minimal, or nonexistent, role in the contentious debate about due process and campus sexual assault. Know Your IX, however, was dubbed the “death star” by one lawyer who frequently represents accused students. As such, it represents an odd partner to a civil liberties organization. 

Know Your IX was co-founded by Amherst graduate Dana Bolger and Yale graduate Alexandra Brodsky. Co-founder Brodsky unconvincingly maintained that Obama-era policies should be interpreted as favorable to the due process rights of accused students.

The differing approaches the ACLU and Know Your IX took to comments addressing the draft regulations further highlight the awkward alignment between the two organizations. The ACLU, while previewing many of the troubling themes from its later lawsuit, at least accurately described the relevant case law. Know Your IX, by contrast, misrepresented two of the most important federal court wins for accused students, on which the DeVos rules were partly based. In one passage, Know Your IX suggested that the 2018 decision of the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, in Doe v. Baum, did not say what it plainly held: that a public university “must give the accused student or his agent an opportunity to cross-examine the accuser and adverse witnesses in the presence of a neutral fact-finder” in all cases in which credibility is an issue.

Few, if any, journalists have done better work in detailing the injustices faced by accused college students than Emily Yoffe. Her succession of meticulously accurate and fair articles in Slate, the Atlantic, Politico, and Reason have exposed unfair procedures faced by white and black students, in public and private institutions. Brodsky’s reaction, during her tenure at the helm of Know Your IX? “There is a special place in hell,” she tweeted, “for women who are Emily Yoffe.”

That the ACLU has chosen to team with a group co-founded by such a figure, targeting regulations that advance campus due process more than anything for a generation, speaks volumes of the organization’s decline as a leader in the protection of civil liberties.

realclearpolitics-KC ohnson & Stuart Taylor

, , /

ANALYSIS: Title IX Lawsuits Have Skyrocketed Since 2013

Dive Brief:

  • The number of students who have sued colleges and universities for potentially botching sexual violence cases has exploded in recent years, according to a new analysis. 
  • The report, published recently in the New York University Journal of Legislation and Public Policy, shows that federal and state courts have sided with institutions across the U.S. a little less than half the time in cases that yielded “substantive decisions.”
  • The legal landscape around Title IX may be shifting more as the U.S. Department of Education released its regulations around the federal sex discrimination law. 

Dive Insight:

For the last several years, backlash has intensified over guidance the Obama-era Education Department released in 2011 dictating how colleges and universities should adjudicate sexual assault and harassment cases. While the new 2020 regulations will provide uniform expectations on Title IX for all colleges and universities that accept federal funding, court actions have significantly affected how administrators handle sexual assault cases. 

The report notes how much more frequently students and others are pursuing Title IX lawsuits. In the 21 months following the release of Obama’s 2011 guidance, only seven federal lawsuits were filed. In 2013, seven more complaints were filed. But in 2014, the number of lawsuits filed climbed to 25, with 45 more coming in 2015; 47 in 2016; 78 in 2017 and another 78 in 2018.

When students file these lawsuits, they are usually alleging institutions have violated one or more of three areas: due process rights under the 14th Amendment, breaches of contract with a student (such as officials not following codes of conduct) or infringement of Title IX in that administrators were biased when adjudicating a case based on sex. The judiciary has needed to intervene more because colleges are not properly equipped to address these cases.

educationdive.com-Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

COLLEGE MALES: The Unfairer Sex Are Taking Legal Action

/

COLLEGE MALES: The Unfairer Sex Are Taking Legal Action

Class-action lawsuits filed on behalf of women under Title IX have been part and parcel of the legal world for decades… now it’s men’s turn to band together.

A lawsuit filed by attorney Andrew Miltenberg has recently made national headlines. This Title IX lawsuit relies on a class-action theory to address the grievances of an increasingly visible and numerous class of victims: men in higher education. Hundreds of lawsuits already seek justice on behalf of accused male students in federal courts. Title IX for All, an online archive, currently tracks around 500 such suits, many of which have led to favorable rulings.

There are similar legal challenges pending in California state courts leveled by Mark Hathaway, a specialist attorney. There are also Title IX complaints filed with the Department of Education that rely on a similar class-action theory, the earliest dating to April 2016.

Male students who receive sanctions through Title IX often suffer negative consequences that can be as damaging as loss of liberty in today’s world. Further, there is no reason to assume that men are less prone than women to severe emotional distress. Male students often are deprived of the extensive support that women receive from colleges, not to mention that their presumption of innocence is frequently denied. Moreover, male students who experience discrimination rarely find recourse to justice when they complain to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. According to our recent research, whenever OCR wrote a resolution letter between 2012 and 2019 to adjudicate adversarial proceedings between female and male parties, they sided with the female 216 times but only nine times with the male.

insidehighered– J. Moore and K.C. Pekgoz

EX-STUDENT Files Sex Discrimination Lawsuit Against Dordt University

, /

EX-STUDENT Files Sex Discrimination Lawsuit Against Dordt University

A former student dismissed from Dordt University for having sex with a female student has sued the school for sex discrimination, claiming the school’s action against him was based on gender stereotypes in which women are automatically viewed as victims.

Per his lawsuit, John Doe said the sex was consensual, and that the Sioux Center, Iowa, university’s policies are gender-biased by referring to assault and abuse victims exclusively as female, contradictory to requirements under Title IX, a federal law that protects people from sex discrimination at schools and universities that receive federal funds. Doe claims other students convinced the woman that the sex couldn’t have been consensual if she had been drinking. Other students and/or staff subsequently filed a Title IX complaint against Doe on the woman’s behalf. Doe said he was dismissed from Dordt weeks before earning his diploma after a “sham hearing” in which he was presumed guilty from the start and had no access to the accusations against him or legal representation.

Doe is seeking damages and punitive damages in an amount to be determined at trial. He also is seeking a ruling ordering Dordt to reverse its ruling against him, expunge his disciplinary record and award him his degree.

siouxcityjournal.com– Nick Hytrek

LAWSUIT: MALE CLEARED of Title IX Accusation Sues Maine’s University System For Not Protecting Him

, , /

LAWSUIT: MALE CLEARED of Title IX Accusation Sues Maine’s University System For Not Protecting Him

A male student at the University of Maine at Farmington who was accused of sexual misconduct by a couple of female students is suing the university system, saying he was also the victim of sexual assault and that the school discriminated against him because of his gender. The lawsuit claims “gender inequities in the university’s implementation of Title IX and the creation of a hostile environment,” and also says the student was denied due process when he was suspended without a hearing in response to a new allegation that surfaced after he had been cleared by the university in an earlier case.

The suit says that in fall 2017, “John Doe” was dating a female student who reported to Farmington police that he sexually assaulted her. Police did not prosecute after determining the woman had falsely accused the male student because of guilt over having another boyfriend. Initially, the university’s Title IX investigator cleared the male student of sexual harassment and sexual assault accusations. When the woman appealed the finding, it went to a Student Conduct Code Committee, which reversed the investigator’s decision, and the male student was suspended. His lawsuit claims the committee, comprised of four women and one man, was biased against him.

Universities across the country are grappling with how to balance the rights of accusers in campus sexual assault cases with due process for the accused. In the last three months, class action lawsuits by accused students in California and Michigan are forcing officials in those states to reconsider the rights of students charged with misconduct.

pressherald-Rachel Ohm

LAWSUIT: Ex-UMarylandBC Baseball Players, Part of National Trend, Suing Accuser in Court

, , /

LAWSUIT: Ex-UMarylandBC Baseball Players, Part of National Trend, Suing Accuser in Court

Three former baseball players from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County are suing a woman who accused them of sexual assault, part of a growing trend of male students facing sexual assault claims taking their female accusers to court. The defamation, malicious prosecution, abuse of process and invasion of privacy claims were filed recently in response to a civil lawsuit the woman brought against the men in Baltimore County Circuit Court. Defamation claims are the new legal tool for men to clear their name and get their accuser to drop sexual assault complaints, according to legal experts. The defamation cases usually end in settlements.

Defamation claims are difficult to track because most are filed in state courts. Eric Rosenberg, an Ohio defense attorney, has filed 20 lawsuits against universities in Maryland and across the country on behalf of men accused in campus sexual assault cases. He said he has also filed a defamation suit against the accused woman along with almost every due process case. “Without defamation, the accused can’t put it behind them,” Rosenberg said. “It’s only through defamation cases that people stop spreading the rumors and students can move on academically and professionally.” He said even if students win their due process cases against the universities and get their discipline records expunged, the cases can follow them. For example, many licensing boards and graduate schools still require disclosure of all school disciplinary cases. The women may continue to post on social media or elsewhere about the case. And many men found themselves accused and then expelled from schools — their academic and professional careers over, Rosenberg said.

Last fall, the Department of Education proposed new Title IX rules governing schools’ reaction to sexual assault and harassment. The rules would improve defendants’ access to evidence and the right to cross-examination.

baltimoresun-Catherine Rentz

LAWSUIT: Successful Black Purdue Student on Football Scholarship is Accused by White Girl. Black Male is Railroaded.

, , /

LAWSUIT: Successful Black Purdue Student on Football Scholarship is Accused by White Girl. Black Male is Railroaded.

A football player expelled from Purdue in 2017 after facing sexual assault allegations has brought a reverse discrimination lawsuit against the University. Brandon Roberts, who began at Purdue on a scholarship in fall 2016, claims multiple violations, including one of Title IX. Two other violations alleged by the documents are Title VI, a statute to prevent any discrimination on the grounds of race, color or national origin against anyone receiving federal funding, and due process, which is protected by the 14th Amendment of the Constitution.

The documents provide, in specific detail, why Roberts and his counsel, John H. Haskin and Associates, decided to pursue legal action against the University. Before the events for which Roberts was expelled occurred, he “was a successful student with an unblemished disciplinary record that additionally was on scholarship and playing for Purdue’s football team.” The documents allege that because Roberts is an African-American man and the individual who claimed he sexually assaulted her is a white woman, the University’s investigation was “preordained.” The other offense mentioned is that because of the sexual assault allegations and expulsion, Roberts’ dream to play professional football was “dealt a serious blow.”

purdueexponent.org -Staff

1 2 3 4 5