If you have documented a series of violations and little or ineffective corrective action by the school, you may consider litigation. Before any lawsuit is filed, you may send a final settlement demand to notify the district and give them one additional chance to respond to your concerns. Your attorney will send a formal demand letter composed of the Notice of Violation letters you sent and the school’s responses that you documented. The letter may contain specific demands with a deadline. If the school district does not substantively respond, then it knows that the next step is a lawsuit. This can be seen as a good faith measure that you have exhausted every step prior to initiating litigation. It is possible that the district will want to settle your case prior to litigation because there are so many disadvantages for the district in litigation compared to a UCP investigation. If the case does not settle, your attorney files a complaint in federal or state court. The district responds, and both sides enter discovery — the phase where your attorney can subpoena the district’s internal emails, depose teachers and administrators under oath, and obtain the records the district will never voluntarily produce. This is where your incident log and preserved evidence become critical. Discovery typically lasts several months. Most cases settle during or after discovery, once both sides have seen the full evidence. At this stage, the parties are usually ordered to attend mediation. At mediation, another lawyer, usually a former judge, spends a full day with both sides and tries to achieve a settlement. Nearly all cases settle before trial. However, if the case does not settle, it will go to trial before a jury. From filing to trial, federal civil rights cases typically take 18 months.
About the Jewish Community Advocacy Council
The Jewish Community Advocacy Council (JCAC) is a pro bono Jewish legal aid foundation dedicated to empowering Jewish families to protect their civil rights through legal action. JCAC can provide pro bono legal services in California and can help you find another attorney in your area if you don’t live in California. Please visit our website at www.jcac.org.