Filed Under: Advisor
If a party’s advisor is truly unruly or disruptive to proceedings, and refuses to comply with lawful boundaries the school has placed on their role, what recourse does the school have? May the school remove a party’s advisor for such disruption, or does that deprive a party of their advisor of choice? May a school impose discipline on a party for the actions of their advisor, if that advisor’s conduct violates the school’s code of conduct? May the school impose discipline on a party for their failure to control the disruptive actions of their advisor? If an advisor can be removed by a school, does the party then get to choose another advisor, or does the school appoint one at that point?
Thank you for your question regarding OCR’s new Title IX Regulations. All references and citations are to the official version of the Regulation published in the Federal Register available here. A link to the unofficial version of the final Regulations is available here.
A recipient retains significant discretion to adopt rules that govern the conduct and decorum of participants at live hearings, so long as such rules comply with the final Regulations and apply equally to both parties. The Regulations authorize the recipient to remove an unruly advisor (for example, because the advisor is badgering or yelling at a witness) and appoint another one to conduct the cross-examination. If an advisor provided by the recipient also refuses to comply with the rules of decorum, the recipient may provide the party with a different advisor to conduct cross-examination on their behalf.
There is nothing in the Final Title IX Regulations that would give the recipient the authority to discipline a party for the misconduct of that party’s advisor.