Miltenberg: “Courts ruling on side of students accused of sexual assault. Here’s why,” Detroit Free Press

Since a “Dear Colleague” letter from the Obama administration in 2011  urged universities to take more action on sexual assault complaints, universities have lost more decisions in these lawsuits than they have won, according to an analysis of federal court filings. Most of the decisions are judges deciding against universities’ motions to dismiss the cases. “It’s the end of the beginning,” said Andrew Miltenberg, an attorney with Nesenoff & Miltenberg who represents accused students, including a trio suing Michigan State University. “We’re seeing, for the first time, in the last year or so, that courts are starting to embrace the concept that there could be due process issues.” … Miltenberg said he hasn’t seen any slowing of accusations. “I still think there’s a lot of confusion out there on what needs to be done (by universities),” he said. And there was a need for courts to step in because “universities, on their own, weren’t going to get (to fair due process) on their own.” … Universities are definitely aware of the court trend, Miltenberg said. He is finding he can draft a complaint listing a number of issues, present it to the university before filing and have universities tell them to slow down the process and work with them to get a fair hearing.

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