St. Thomas University Benjamin L. Crump College of Law Student Defense Lawyer

How do honor code and academic standing cases work at the Crump College of Law?

This is a private university, so it is not a state actor: the Fourteenth Amendment does not reach it, and Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) — the statute that gives students at Florida’s public colleges and state universities a legal representative who may question witnesses — does not apply. What governs instead is the school’s own published policy, enforced as a contract. In Florida that is not a weak position. Sharick v. Southeastern University of the Health Sciences establishes that a Florida institution which breaches its own procedures can face real damages, which makes the precise wording of the school’s rules the centre of the case.

St. Thomas is unusual in that its two tracks pull in opposite directions. On an honor code charge the student is protected by a high standard of proof. On an academic standing petition the burden is expressly reversed onto the student. Knowing which track you are on determines the entire strategy.

The honor code track: clear and convincing

Honor Code section 3.04(E)(2) provides that if a majority of the Honor Council finds by clear and convincing evidence that the accused committed acts violating the Honor Code, the accused shall be found guilty. Clear and convincing is a materially heavier burden than preponderance, and it belongs to the school to carry. Where the evidence is a professor’s impression, an inference from similarity, or an unexplained anomaly, that burden is a real obstacle and it should be pressed rather than conceded.

The academic standing track: the burden flips

On academic-standing petitions the rules provide that “the student has the burden of proof with regard to all matters relating to the petition.” That is the mirror image of the honor code track, and it changes what a good submission looks like. A petition is not an appeal in which the school must justify itself; it is an affirmative case the student has to prove.

Practically, that means a petition built on documented cause and a concrete, verifiable plan will always outperform one built on regret. Where a medical circumstance, a family emergency, an accommodation that was requested and not delivered, or a documented administrative error contributed, that evidence is the petition. Where a student writes two pages of apology and a promise to try harder, the burden has not been met, and under this rule that is fatal rather than merely unpersuasive.

Counsel may attend but not participate, and the Dean is the end

Section 3.04 gives the accused the right to have counsel present, but counsel may attend and not participate. A lawyer may sit in the room and may not speak. That is a middle position between the public schools, where a legal representative may question witnesses under section 1006.60(3)(g), and NSU, which excludes attorneys altogether.

An appeal runs to the Dean within ten business days of the Honor Council’s disposition notice, under section 4.02, and section 4.03 provides that the Dean’s decision is final. Separately, a denial of an accommodation may be appealed in writing within one week, and the Associate Dean’s decision on it may not be appealed further. That accommodation window is the shortest deadline in the document and the one most often missed, because a student who has just been refused an accommodation is rarely thinking about a one-week appeal clock.

The bar application is the real exposure

The sanction recorded on a transcript is seldom the worst of it. The Florida Board of Bar Examiners requires disclosure of academic discipline, and the law school’s own certification accompanies the application. A finding an undergraduate would absorb becomes, for a law student, a character and fitness matter to be explained in writing years later, under oath, next to the school’s account of it.

The objective is therefore a better characterisation, not merely a smaller sanction, because the characterisation is what gets disclosed. An outcome recorded as an academic disagreement closed without any finding of dishonesty is a different bar application from one recorded as an integrity violation involving misrepresentation, even where the practical consequence is identical. That is negotiated before agreement, never after.

What should you do first?

Identify the track. If it is an honor code charge, the school must prove it by clear and convincing evidence and you should not volunteer a narrative before the allegation and the evidence are disclosed. If it is an academic standing petition, you carry the burden, and the work is assembling documentation now — medical records, correspondence, accommodation requests and the school’s responses, evidence of any administrative error. If an accommodation was refused, diary one week from the refusal immediately.

What can a student defense lawyer do here?

• Holding the Honor Council to clear and convincing evidence under section 3.04(E)(2) rather than a lower practical standard
• Building an academic standing petition that actually discharges the burden the rules place on the student
• Assembling documentary proof of cause — medical, accommodation, or administrative error — rather than submitting an apology
• Preparing a student to speak for themselves where counsel may attend but not participate
• Catching the one week accommodation appeal window before it closes, since the further decision is unappealable
• Docketing the ten business day appeal to the Dean under section 4.02
• Documenting departures from St. Thomas’s own published procedure, which is what Sharick makes actionable
• Handling Section 504 and ADA accommodations and testing accommodations, which remain federal claims regardless of the school being private

Where a St. Thomas Law matter would be litigated

Miami Gardens is in Miami-Dade County, which 28 U.S.C. section 89(c) places in the Southern District of Florida, Miami Division. Section 504, ADA, Title IX and Title VI claims are filed there, where I am admitted and where I practise. Constitutional due process claims do not lie against a private university. See the guide to federal districts by campus and the St. Thomas University page.

The other Florida law schools, and why the differences matter

Florida has eleven ABA-approved law schools headquartered in the state plus the Florida campus of Cooley, and their honor codes are not variations on a theme. Whether an advisor may be a lawyer, whether that lawyer may speak, what the school must prove, and which decisions can be appealed at all differ from one to the next — which is why the first question in any case is which document actually governs you.

• UF Levin College of Law — preponderance, and a legal representative may question witnesses under section 1006.60(3)(g)
• FSU College of Law — clear and convincing, record-only findings, and five faculty must join a sanction-review request
• University of Miami School of Law — an express bar-reporting provision in the Academic Bulletin
• FIU College of Law — the standard of proof is tied to the sanction, not the charge
• FAMU College of Law — no separate honor code; the Orlando campus is in the Middle District
• Stetson University College of Law — names two codes and publishes neither text
• Barry University School of Law — a forty-eight hour appeal window, and most sanctions cannot be appealed at all
• Ave Maria School of Law — two tracks with two different standards; two school days on one of them
• NSU Shepard Broad College of Law — attorneys barred from participating in or observing the process
• Jacksonville University College of Law — provisional ABA approval; the advisor must be another JU student
• Cooley Law School, Tampa Bay — toleration of a violation, and failure to cooperate, are violations in themselves

For the statutory framework behind all of them — Fla. Stat. section 1006.60(3) at the public schools, the contract and Sharick route at the private ones, and the thirty-day certiorari deadline that catches people out — see Florida student defense. Where the issue is a GPA rather than an accusation, see law school academic standing.

Common questions about St. Thomas University College of Law cases

What standard of proof applies to an honor code charge?

Clear and convincing evidence. Honor Code section 3.04(E)(2) requires a majority of the Honor Council to find by clear and convincing evidence that the accused violated the Code. That burden is the school’s and it is heavier than preponderance.

Is the standard the same on an academic standing petition?

No, and this is the critical difference. On a petition the rules place the burden of proof on the student for all matters relating to it. A petition is an affirmative case you must prove, not an appeal the school must answer.

Can my lawyer speak at the hearing?

No. Section 3.04 lets counsel be present but attend and not participate. Counsel may be in the room and may not speak, so the preparation and the written record do the work.

How long do I have to appeal an honor code decision?

Ten business days from the Honor Council’s disposition notice, to the Dean, under section 4.02. Section 4.03 makes the Dean’s decision final.

What if my accommodation request is denied?

Appeal in writing within one week. That is the shortest deadline in the rules, and the Associate Dean’s decision on the appeal may not be appealed further, so the one-week window is effectively the whole opportunity internally. A Section 504 or ADA claim is separate and survives the school being private.

What makes an academic standing petition succeed?

Documented cause and a concrete plan. Because you carry the burden, medical records, accommodation correspondence, or proof of an administrative error are the petition. An apology and a promise to improve does not discharge a burden of proof.