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Universities Pay $$$ for Costly Title IX Settlement Agreements

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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.