Universities Pay $$$ for Costly Title IX Settlement Agreements
SAVE
July 20, 2021
A growing number of settlements have been documented in Title IX lawsuits filed in federal courts. Previously, little was known about the judicial justification for these settlements. A leading Title IX litigation firm has provided SAVE with the following information, based on 75 settlement agreements across the country:
Post-Decision Settlements
Altogether, 92 post-judicial decisions have resulted in settlement agreements, to date. Cases settle for some of (or, in rare cases, all of) the following reasons:
(i) reversal of the school finding
(ii) expungement from records
(iii) a judicial order that the student can answer “no” on any future applications that have a question related to institutional discipline
(iv) agreement on a statement for future applications
(v) change of the charge to a lesser offense
(vi) destruction of files
(vii) no release of records
Settlement amounts ranged from $0 to $1.7 million. The average settlement was in the mid-to-high six figures.
Pre-Decision Settlements
To date, 104 settlement agreements have been reached prior to the issuance of a judicial decision. These cases settle for the same reasons as the Post-Decision Settlements. Often, there is no financial component to the settlement, or a minimal amount, typically under $75,000.