Chicago Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
Statutes intended to protect one group of citizens can sometimes be applied to another group. Title IX, for example, is a federal statute that was designed to promote gender equality by protecting women. However, in one recent lawsuit against Columbia University, a male student is suing the university for discrimination under Title IX.
At issue is an evening in which the student had sex with a female freshman at the university. He says it was consensual. She says otherwise. The university suspended him for one year, an outcome that he claims was unjust.
He hired Andrew Miltenberg, a Manhattan attorney who has taken on the cases of the accused in numerous instances of alleged sexual assault. Despite the fact that representing the accused in such a situation is far from popular, Miltenberg insists that those accused are not always given access to the rights under the law. According to Miltenberg, as a defendant in one of these cases, “You got factual statements made that you’re not necessarily allowed to review and you’re certainly now allowed to have copies of. … You may or may not be able to present your witnesses. You probably don’t have the chance to cross-examine.”
There’s no doubt that this is a very delicate issue and remaining fair to all parties involved can be extremely difficult. After decades of women accusing colleges and universities of not being harsh enough on those who commit sexual assault, now there are groups saying they have gone too far in the other direction and have begun discriminating against men. Continue reading ›