Hearings
in contested casesHearings in contested cases
Please be aware of some things you should consider doing in order to prepare for a contested hearing. Remember, every person's hearing is unique to his/her personal circumstances. Please use what information is useful to you and appropriate to your situation, and disregard the rest.
- Position Statements
- Evidence, Witnesses, and Advisers
- The Hearing
- Sanction Statements
- Final Remarks
- Sample Hearing Outline
Position Statements
Students provide a written position statement to the Office of Judicial Affairs that is provided to the reporting party and the Judicial Panel.
A position statement often includes:
- A specific, detailed, factual account of how you did your work (or your account of what occurred during the alleged violation), in response to the specific concerns raised by the reporting party.
- If you provided an earlier written explanation, you may incorporate the explanation into your statement, as well as supplement your explanation further.
- The statement may incorporate circumstances surrounding the event that are relevant to the facts and issues of the case.
- It may indicate whether you are contesting the charge because you disagree with the facts/allegation. (If the answer is yes, explain why.)
- It may indicate whether you are contesting the charge on the basis that you do not believe your actions are an Honor Code (or Fundamental Standard) violation. (If the answer is yes, explain why.)
- It may offer any mitigating factors that a panel should be aware of while deliberating on a decision.
- It may offer an explanation or your thoughts about any aggravating factors that a panel might see fit to consider while deliberating on a decision.
Of course, this is your statement so you get to decide what you want to say. The more information you provide to a panel, the easier it is for the panel members to understand the situation and the fewer questions they will need to ask you. Remember, the panel will receive the charge letter, the evidence, and your statement before the hearing. It is to your benefit that your position is clearly stated, prior to the panel's questions for the reporting party. Also, it is beneficial for the panel members to have the explanation, in your words, after you leave (while they are deliberating).
Many students ask the Judicial Advisor and/or Judicial Officer to review and offer feedback about the statement. If you want such feedback, please submit the draft statement via e-mail, after discussing a timely deadline for its submission. If you do not want feedback, it is still necessary for you to submit your statement in advance. Please discuss this with the Judicial Officer so, again, she can let you know the deadline for your statement. The Judicial Officer needs to make sure enough time is allowed for hearing preparation.
Evidence, Witnesses, and Advisers
Evidence: Per the Student Judicial Charter, it is the Judicial Officer’s responsibility to present evidence that supports the charges, as well as any extenuating circumstances or exculpatory evidence uncovered during the investigation. Therefore, it is necessary for you to communicate with the Judicial Officer about any evidence you believe should be brought forth. If you have any additional information or documentation that the Judicial Officer does not have and you think could be relevant to the concern, please provide it immediately. In addition to determining what information addresses the relevant facts and issues of the concern, the Judicial Officer must verify everything prior to the hearing. Finally, in order for the Judicial Officer to be prepared to present your information, including your position statement, she asks that anything you have not already provided to her be presented immediately.
In your hearing preparation meeting with the Judicial Advisor and the Judicial Officer, you and they will review what information will be photocopied and provided to the Judicial Panel to make sure you and Judicial Affairs are in agreement with what documents are relevant. Your entire file will be available to the panel at the hearing. Typically, a student’s file will contain the original concern, email communication about it, your transcript, the form you completed when you first came to Judicial Affairs, the Judicial Officer’s personal notes, statements (including drafts) submitted by you and any witnesses, etc. If you have questions about what is in your file, please do not hesitate to ask.
Witnesses: If there are witness(es) who can speak to the facts and issues of your case, your witness must submit a statement about his/her assertions. Again, please discuss this with the Judicial Officer so she can let you know the deadline for your witness statement(s). Again, she needs to make sure enough time is allowed for hearing preparation.
Advisors: You are permitted to have a person of your choice accompany you at the hearing. If you wish to bring such an advisor/support person, the Judicial Officer needs advance notification so that adequate accommodations in the hearing room can be made. A 5-business day notification is necessary in order for Judicial Affairs to make such accommodations. Please remember that an adviser/support person cannot serve as a witness.
The Hearing
[To download a sample hearing outline (pdf), click here.]
A hearing in a contested case can last from 15-45 minutes to several hours, and will most likely be held in a second-floor conference room at Stanford’s Tresidder Memorial Union.
There will be 4 students, one faculty, and one staff person on the Judicial Panel. (Although there are always 4 students, in an Honor Code case there could be two faculty members and no staff; while in a Fundamental Standard case there could be two staff members and no faculty). The panelists will sit on one side of the table. You, the reporting party, and the Judicial Officer will sit on the other side of the table. (The Judicial Officer will be seated between you and the reporting party). The Judicial Advisor will be at the end of the table. Hearings have the appearance or feel of a meeting or conference, not a courtroom proceeding. Hearings are audio-tape-recorded to preserve a record of the proceedings, and you are entitled to receive a copy of the audiocassette tapes. (Hearings are not transcribed.)
You will have an opportunity to see all of the panelists and inform the Judicial Advisor if you recognize anyone and have a concern that there is a possible bias (grounds for excusing that panelist, pursuant to applicable bias check practices and procedures). In such event, you and the Judicial Advisor will step out of the hearing room briefly so that you can discuss it; it is the Judicial Advisor's responsibility to then decide, in her sole discretion, if there are persuasive grounds for excusing that individual for possible bias. Once you have acknowledged the panel is acceptable, the Chair (always one of the 4 students) will begin the hearing with a reminder about the nature of the proceedings, including their confidentiality.
The Chair will then ask the Judicial Officer if there is any information, from here investigation, that should be reviewed by either the reporting party or the respondent prior to questions from the panel. If there is no information to review, beyond the documents made available, or upon completing the review, the panel will then ask the reporting party, you, and/or the Judicial Officer any questions they have about the facts of the case.
You can ask the reporting party and/or the Judicial Officer questions.
Witnesses will be called in, as appropriate. You will have the opportunity to ask questions of the witness(es). Please discuss potential witnesses with both the Judicial Advisor and Judicial Officer in advance.
The panel will ask the reporting party if he/she has any further comment.
The panel will ask the Judicial Officer if she has any further comment.
The panel will ask you if you have any final comments prior to deliberations. This is your last opportunity to speak to the panel before leaving the hearing room.
Once the evidentiary portion of the hearing is concluded, the panel chairperson will adjourn for deliberations. This may take anywhere from 15 minutes to several hours. You, the reporting party, any advisers and witnesses, and the Judicial Officer will leave the hearing room. The Judicial Advisor will notify everyone when the panel has made its decision and all participants will return to the hearing room. The chairperson will read the panel’s findings. If you are found not responsible, the panel will adjourn and the process is concluded. If you are found responsible, the Judicial Advisor will outline sanction precedence and you will have an opportunity to speak to the panel about the impact sanctions will have on you.
Sanction Statements
If you intend to ask your Judicial Panel to consider sanctions that deviate or depart from a standard sanction(s) should you be found responsible for a violation, you are strongly advised to submit a written sanction statement detailing the reasons why a deviation or departure should be granted. Such written documentation makes it easier for the Panel to consider each facet of your argument, and it ensures that the Panel is hearing your position in your words once it begins its deliberations. In particular, you should outline the impact the standard sanction(s) would have on you.
It is helpful for Judicial Panels to know:
- Your academic plans (e.g., course requirements, course scheduling, financial aid, etc.)
- Your plans after graduation (if within the year following the hearing)
- Assistantships, internships, scholarships, etc. that are affected
- Visa/immigration status ramifications
- Information about other aspects of your situation that you believe would be unduly impacted by the standard sanction
In regard to these factors, you should explain how the standard sanction(s) would affect each; you should also detail your specific request, how the standard sanction(s) would affect your request, and the rationale for your request. Even though your sanction statement will not be given to your Panel unless and until it finds you responsible for violating the Honor Code or Fundamental Standard, you should plan on submitting it to the Judicial Advisor at least 5 business days in advance of the hearing. The advance submission allows the Judicial Advisor time to verify the information you provide in your statement.
The Judicial Advisor can be a valuable resource in helping you present your arguments as strongly and thoroughly as possible. For instance, simply stating that a quarter of suspension would, in effect, delay your academic progress by a year has not proved persuasive to panelists. While writing out your quarter-by-quarter academic plan could prove helpful, this alone would not inform the Panel about what options or alternatives are available (e.g., course substitutions). What has been persuasive to Panels has been documentation from an adviser in your academic department detailing what effect a specific quarter off would have on your academic progress. This might require you to self-disclose to the adviser why you are asking for such detailed documentation so that the adviser can provide the most accurate and relevant information. Obviously, before making a decision to self-disclose, you should weigh the pros and cons of losing some privacy against the value of this information.
The Panel can only base its consideration of your request on the information you provide. In accordance with past practice/precedent, and considering all other mitigating and aggravating factors in your case, it will make a fair and appropriate sanction decision. You are strongly urged to confer with the Judicial Advisor in advance, at length, if you hope that the Judicial Panel will deviate from the standard practice, as it is unusual for Panels to do so.
After your Judicial Panel has finished asking you questions about the impact of potential sanctions, it will ask the reporting party if he/she has further comments. It will also ask the Judicial Officer if there are mitigating and/or aggravating factors in the case that have not yet been presented. And finally, the Panel will ask you for final comments. This will be your last opportunity to speak to the panelists about anything else relevant to your case that has not been presented before.
The Panel will then adjourn to deliberate in closed-door session, and you, the reporting party, and the Judicial Officer will again be excused.
Sanction deliberations usually last between 15-45 minutes, but some have lasted for several hours. You, the reporting party, and the Judicial Officer will be invited to return to hear the decision, although neither your attendance nor that of the reporting party is mandatory. If you and/or the reporting party choose to leave once deliberations have begun, the Judicial Advisor will notify you and him/her of the outcome via email immediately after the hearing is concluded.
Please note that Judicial Panel deliberations are confidential; thus, the Judicial Advisor (who sits in and is available to answer process or procedure-related questions the panelists might have) will not be able to provide information other than what is contained in the Hearing Report.
Final Remarks
Once you have had time to review the above information – which Judicial Affairs hopes you find of assistance – and consider how you want to handle things in the hearing, it would be very useful for you to meet with the Judicial Advisor and Judicial Officer to make sure you are prepared. This meeting should occur at least one week before the hearing.
Judicial Affairs looks forward to assisting you through the student judicial process at Stanford and to a timely resolution of your matter.