The federal Office of Management and Budget has officially concluded its review of the draft Title IX regulations, reports SAVE. Readers should be aware that over the years, SAVE has been hard at work developing plans to support implementation of the new regulations. SAVE created new pages on their website supporting these efforts, and accused students will find helpful information at this page: Lawsuits by accused students.

And from Title IX For All: “We have recently learned that Betsy DeVos’ long-anticipated Title IX regulations have cleared the Office of Management and Budget, meaning virtually nothing is standing in the way of their publication.”

Title IX For All also reports: “We can now confirm that over six hundred lawsuits have been filed in behalf of students (and some school personnel) accused of Title IX-related offenses.

Nearly half of all the lawsuits in our tally – 47.5% – have been filed in a mere five states: California (18%), New York (12%), Ohio (7.5%), Pennsylvania (5.5%), and Massachusetts (4.5%). The UC and CSU systems in particular have been pummeled by a high amount of litigation via writs of mandate, while in New York the SUNY system, Columbia, and Cornell, among others, have faced a disproportionate number of lawsuits.

Two litigation powerhouses – Andrew Miltenberg and his team at Nesenoff & Miltenberg and Mark Hathaway and Jenna Parker of Hathaway Parker – have litigated ~25% of the total number of lawsuits. The rest have been litigated by a spread of 610 attorneys representing plaintiffs and 744 attorneys representing schools and school personnel. Regarding court and judge data, we have seen litigation in 192 courts (86 federal courts and 106 state courts), with 622 judges (429 male and 193 female) presiding over litigation.

On average, 120 lawsuits have been filed each year from 2017-2019. We have seen an anticipated decline in recent filings due to COVID-19. With the imminent publication of DeVos’ Title IX regulations, however, we believe the 2021 spring semester will start a new, steeper ramp upward that will exceed the 2017-2019 yearly averages in terms of lawsuit filings.

A BIG thank you to Title IX For All and SAVE- Stop Abusive and Violent Environments- for their dedicated and impactful work, Alice.