In a Title IX investigation, does the Coordinator have an obligation to email me questions regarding the investigation? I have hired a lawyer because my exboyfriend said I'm stalking him after I filed a sexual assault case against him. My sexual assault case was closed, but the Title IX coordinator is asking me about the stalking case. I spoke to my lawyer who said I do not have to answer anything over email and that I can answer relevant questions in person with an attorney present. I told this to the Title IX coordinator three times on separate occasions (noting that this Title IX coordinator is overtly and visibly biased in favor of my ex) and I gave dates and times I am available. However she emailed me again saying that it is her obligation as Title IX coordinator to check with me regarding significant issues that come to her attention in advance of our meeting. I don't see this as a good excuse because what if I didn't communicate via email like some people, what if I didn't have a phone? How would she communicate with me? Is there a legal expectation (as she says there is) for her to ask me questions about the accusations made by my ex via email, if I said I will speak to her in person with an attorney present? I know I could send the messages to junk (which I do) but I still have to check my junk mail because she might be emailing me about dates/times to meet. This is dealing with an NYC public college.
Setting aside everything but the title, the Title IX coordinator does not have a federal obligation to email questions to anyone. They may, however, have an institutional obligation to act in a particular way, which might include always email questions, or never emailing questions (the latter is most likely). Assuming someone filed an institutional grievance against you, you have some right to answer these charges – it will be spelled out in the institution's rules. The federal regulations are between the institution and the government, and the institution then creates rules to keep themselves in compliance. The usual worst-case scenario is that someone files a grievance, which is reviewed by the institution. As the accused, you will be informed of the charges against you, and will have the opportunity to defend yourself at least by the "committee decision" phase. Prior to that point, the institution can gather any data deemed relevant, and may well require that all questioning be conducted in a face-to-face meeting. Universities generally have minimal specification of procedural requirements, until they run into a problem and impose rules. To determine a person's authority to require something of you, you can ask them to tell you the university rules that give them that authority. Your attorney can then compare their demand with their authority and advise you whether you must comply, or perhaps strategically should comply, or should refuse. The federal regulation which drives this is 34 CFR 105 subpart A. The logic of this is that the institution cannot discriminate on the basis of sex, if they do, they can be punished, but they can also "erase" the discrimination if they "overcome the effects" of the discrimination. §106.8 requires the institution to have a coordinator who assures compliance and does what is necessary including investigating. There must also be a grievance procedure: (b) A recipient shall adopt and publish grievance procedures providing for prompt and equitable resolution of student and employee complaints alleging any action which would be prohibited by this part. There is absolutely no further federal specification as to what this coordinator can do, instead the government leaves it up the the institution to come up with procedures. The only requirement is that there be no judgment of discrimination.
The scope of attorney-client (solicitor-client) privilege includes the advice received from the lawyer. As long as it &quot;arise[s] from communication between a lawyer and the client where the latter seeks lawful legal advice.&quot; If one could be compelled to reveal the advice received back from a lawyer (or if a lawyer could be compelled to reveal advice they provided to a client), that would effectively obliterate the privacy the privilege seeks to protect. The privilege belongs to the client, and the client may waive that privilege. In order for the communication to be privileged, it must arise from communication between a lawyer and the client where the latter seeks lawful legal advice. Where legal advice of any kind is sought from a professional legal adviser ... the communications relating to that purpose, made in confidence by the client, are at [the client's] instance permanently protected from disclosure by [the client] or by the legal adviser, except the protection be waived. (R. v. McClure, [2001] 1 S.C.R. 445). The scope of the privilege does not extend to communications: (1) where legal advice is not sought or offered; (2) where it is not intended to be confidential; or (3) that have the purpose of furthering unlawful conduct (Pritchard v. Ontario (Human Rights Commission), [2004] 1 S.C.R. 809) The prima facie protection for solicitor-client communications is based on the fact that the relationship and the communications between solicitor and client are essential to the effective operation of the legal system. (R. v. Gruenke, [1991] 3 S.C.R. 263)
Is a text message legally binding? Yes, but the terms of the message need to be clear enough to ascertain the parties' intent at the formation of that contract or agreement. A contract does not even need to be in writing. There are also oral contracts and implied contracts, the latter referring to contracts which are inferred from the parties' conduct. A contract such as the agreement you describe here is binding regardless of its form. It is just easier to prove the existence of a contract if it is in writing. You did not specify your jurisdiction. If it is in the US, the price tag --rather than the downpayment-- of the object of the contract (i.e., the puppy you intend to buy) determines whether your complaint would need to be filed in Small Claims court. Generally speaking, parties to a dispute in Small Claims court have to represent themselves. Two remarks are pertinent. First, developing writing skills is utmost important not only for litigating a dispute, but also during the process of formulating the terms and conditions of a contract/agreement. Your post indicates that you seriously need to work on that. Second, the end of your post reflects that one of your managers violated labor law(s), which to most of us would be more worrisome than the controversy about the puppy. Legislation in most or all jurisdictions outlaws the act of withholding an employee's compensation regardless of its form (salary, commissions, and so forth). You might want to gain acquaintance with the labor laws of your jurisdiction so you can assess whether or how to proceed (does legislation require the employee to "exhaust administrative remedies" prior to filing in court? are administrative remedies optional? do these exist at all?), even if only to ascertain whether the deadline for filing the corresponding claim has elapsed.
The other answers are correct that you should speak to a lawyer, but you should expect your lawyer to tell you that you don't have a viable lawsuit. I can't speak to Pennsylvania law, but these facts would make a pretty weak claim for sexual harassment under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. To win a hostile-work environment case, you must demonstrate: you suffered intentional discrimination because of your sex; the discrimination was severe or pervasive; the discrimination detrimentally affected you; the discrimination would detrimentally affect a reasonable person in like circumstances; and the existence of respondeat superior liability. Minarsky v. Susquehanna Cty., 895 F.3d 303, 309 (3d Cir. 2018). Your main problem will be in proving that the harassment was so "severe or pervasive" that it altered the terms of your employment. This is not as high a bar as it used to be, but the courts will not grant relief for "isolated incidents" unless they are extremely serious. Such incidents typically involve some kind of forcible, physical, sexual contact, which I don't see here. The general rule is that the more severe the harassment, the less frequently it needs to occur, and vice versa. Unfortunately, courts would probably look at the events you've described -- not physical, not sexually explicit, not threatening, not intimidating, not soliciting sexual conduct, not mocking you -- and say that they are not particularly severe. Given the lack of severity, the court would need to see them happening with pretty regular frequency, but you've described only two events in the course of about 18 months. And with one of those, the employer appears to have taken reasonable corrective action, leaving you with only one incident to complain about in however long you've worked there. Even if a court agreed that your co-workers engaged in unwanted sexual conduct, I'd expect the employer to be able to successfully invoke the Farragher-Ellerth defense, which permits them to escape liability if they can prove: that the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior; and that the plaintiff employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise. Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742, 765 (1998). Since they took corrective action when you reported harassment, and you did nothing to report that there were problems even after the discipline, and did nothing to report that you felt harassed by the second incident, the Farragher-Ellerth defense would probably be successful.
It's no fantastic legal source, and rules may vary in different countries, but from the Wikipedia article on Attorney client privilege: Lawyers may also breach the duty where they are defending themselves against disciplinary or legal proceedings. A client who initiates proceedings against a lawyer effectively waives rights to confidentiality. This is justified on grounds of procedural fairness—a lawyer unable to reveal information relating to the retainer would be unable to defend themselves against such action. In other words, if the client's lie is related to one of the lawyer's interests (for example, if the client sues the attorney for malpractice based on the advice he was given), the lawyer can break privilege on his own behalf, thus testifying that his client lied. As to the specific case you brought up, I would say that privilege wouldn't protect the client from the lawyer discussing things never brought up. In other words, we could force the attorney to testify, since one of two things is true: The attorney really did give him that advice, in which case the client has already voluntarily given up his right to confidentiality by describing what was said between them, or The lawyer never gave him that advice, and privilege wouldn't protect a conversation between the two that never transpired.
united-states Yes and no, that is, the courts have extensive powers to compel testimony, but there are rules about doing so. This article addresses the question of expert testimony. Suppose you want an expert to testify, then Rule 26(a)(2)(B) applies, requiring disclosure of the information to be disclosed, along with a written report. It could be nearly impossible to provide the required information without the cooperation of the expert. Furthermore, under Rule 45(d)(3)(B)(ii), a subpoena can be quashed, which the article summarizes in terms of the objections that Testimony about an expert’s findings may impact or limit an expert’s ability to conduct research Testimony about an expert’s work may be unethical, if the work is not completed, peer reviewed, or otherwise in a “publishable” format The subpoena and resultant testimony could put the expert at a competitive disadvantage Work required to adequately prepare for such testimony is overly burdensome The subpoena and subsequent testimony may put the unwilling expert in a controversial or otherwise uncomfortable position In a specific instance of subpoenaing an involuntary witness, the court in In Re: World Trade Center Lower Manhattan Disaster Site Litigation addressed a motion to compel expert testimony. The opinion lays out various powers of the court to compel a &quot;non-retained&quot; expert witness, including the &quot;substantial need for the testimony or material that cannot be otherwise met without undue hardship&quot;. There is a complex weighing of factors here, which is resolved at the finding that &quot;Plaintiffs have failed to show that the Non-Retained Experts' testimony is unique&quot; so the petition to compel testimony was denied, but the affiliated research center was compelled to disclose the underlying data. So it depends on the circumstances, see Kaufman v. Edelstein, 539 F.2d 811.
We don't have a lot of details, but if you're in the United States, the answer is probably yes. There are rarely any meaningful rules of evidence in student misconduct cases, so pretty much anything can come in. There may be some small difference in the answer depending n whether you're dealing with a public university or private, but in either case, I can't think of any reason why they would not be able to introduce the evidence if they had it. If there's a question about its authenticity, I imagine that would just be up to the misconduct board to decide. If Person X says "Person Y sent this to me," and Person X seems credible, that's probably going to be enough.
This may be allowed, or prohibited, it all depends. At the federal level, there is no specific prohibition against asking this question, however it may be found to violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act if the result discriminates in employment based on race. At the state level (in Washington), WAC 162-12-140 gives examples of fair and unfair pre-employment inquiries. W.r.t. arrests, it deems such questions as fair under limited circumstances: Because statistical studies regarding arrests have shown a disparate impact on some racial and ethnic minorities, and an arrest by itself is not a reliable indication of criminal behavior, inquiries concerning arrests must include whether charges are still pending, have been dismissed, or led to conviction of a crime involving behavior that would adversely affect job performance, and the arrest occurred within the last ten years. Exempt from this rule are law enforcement agencies and state agencies, school districts, businesses and other organizations that have a direct responsibility for the supervision, care, or treatment of children, mentally ill persons, developmentally disabled persons, or other vulnerable adults. See RCW 43.20A.710; 43.43.830 through 43.43.842; and RCW 72.23.035. In other words, asking just about arrests is unfair and illegal. You can look up the law of other states here. In California, you can't ask about an arrest until late in the process as part of an individualized investigation, and can't be an automatic &quot;arrest? No job!&quot; rule. In contrast, Arkansas has no prohibition against arrest as job disqualifier.