Insights & News

When separate and often unrelated parties to any sort of court action—especially if it involves criminal allegations—act in concert as they build their defense, they must be careful not to either run afoul of collusion or obstruction of justice rules or waive attorney-client privilege. But there is a perfectly legitimate—and lawful—way for co-defendants in a civil or criminal action to work together without finding themselves in even more trouble than they might be at the moment.  Typically called a common interest agreement or a joint defense agreement, it allows attorneys for co-parties to formally share information and strategy without breaking […]

What is a Subpoena?  A subpoena is an order issued or approved by a court. Generally, a subpoena is used to demand testimony or production of documents, or both, at a certain date, time, and place. You may receive a subpoena as part of either a civil or criminal case, even if you are not a party to the case.    If you have received a subpoena, you may be asking what to do, especially since you must comply or object in a timely manner or you may face legal penalties including the possibility of jail time.     First, you will want […]

What is a No Contact Order?  A no contact order, or NCO as a Title IX attorney may call it, is a preliminary administrative action a school may take to prevent Title IX parties from contacting one another. It may be one-way (usually preventing the Respondent from contacting the Complainant) or mutual (preventing both the Respondent and Complainant from contacting one another). No contact orders are usually entered at the beginning of a Title IX process and should be taken very seriously as a violation of a no contact order may result in sanctions.   What does a No Contact Order […]

Title IX relates to college athletics.  While Title IX’s original purpose when it was enacted in 1972 was mainly to expand women’s access to athletic opportunities in college, its scope has been massively expanded. Today, one of the primary roles of Title IX is to ensure schools equitably adjudicate sexual misconduct complaints.  2. All Title IX victims are female.   The CDC’s National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey: 2010-2012 State Report, released in 2017, indicates the following self-report statistics regarding male victims of sexual abuse:  “Made to penetrate” offenses (wherein a male was forced to penetrate an offender): 1.7 million […]