If you are facing a school Title IX investigation, you are already under a lot of stress and anxiety from the accusation alone. Grappling with the costs of hiring professional help can add to the stress. The purpose of this guide is to provide clarity and save you time, stress, and money by helping you understand and prepare for the costs associated with our Title IX advisory service.

We understand that while we provide a service that tends to be more affordable, it is always expensive in the sense that it is a cost you did not anticipate. We promise to make the most of our clients’ time and hard-earned money by providing experienced and professional assistance. If you have any questions, please contact us as soon as possible.

How Much Does the Service Cost?

We charge an hourly rate at a fraction of what experienced Title IX attorneys charge. Please contact us or book a free consultation to learn more.

Payment Options

Depending on your financial situation, any of the following may be available:

• Prepaying with a debit or credit card for a certain number of hours
• “Pay in 4” plans that can charge no interest
• Longer payment plans that have a smaller monthly payment and can spread them out across three, six, twelve, eighteen, or twenty-four months. These plans charge interest.

For all payment options, we require payment through debit or credit card. We cannot accept an eCheck or ACH payment because those take days to clear and can cause delays in serving our clients.

Frequency of Invoicing

Our written agreements require us to have a positive balance before any work can be done. It is best to always have a positive balance of at least a few hours so the advisor can respond to emergency situations quickly without any billing concerns.

We try to invoice in the way that works best for the client while making sure we have enough time to get critical work done. On average, smaller invoices means that invoicing will occur more frequently, and vice versa. The pace at which a school moves through the investigation will also affect the pace of work needed and the pace of invoicing. Cases tend to slow down around June and late December as school lets out, but they tend to speed up when there is a chance the case can be resolved before the end of the semester or right before the beginning of an upcoming semester.

Special Expenses

It is rare for special expenses to be incurred, but they do occasionally happen. Most cases are done entirely through email and videoconferencing software like Zoom or Microsoft Teams, so appearing onsite and incurring travel expenses is almost never necessary, especially in higher ed cases. In other rare cases, expert witnesses may be necessary to establish a thorough defense.

Pacing of Work and What Takes the Most Time

It can be useful to look at cases by averages, but that doesn’t really help understand the pace of the work, and the pace of work can directly impact the frequency of invoicing. While an average case will take around 11 hours a month, work tends to come and go in waves rather than being constant. One month may require five hours, the next may require 15 or even 25 depending on the case. If you hire an advisor late in the process, expect them to spend fewer hours overall on the case but more hours upfront since they will likely have to review the entire case record in a short amount of time.

Some activities occur in few but large chunks or clusters while others are small but more frequent. Larger activities include document drafting, meetings, and hearings. By contrast, advising by email, text, or phone tends to be much more frequent but takes less time in each instance.

How Much Time Does a Case Take?

There is no way to predict or promise exactly how long a case will take, but we can provide averages. In our experience, an average case involves 1-3 alleged policy violations across 1-3 alleged incidents, has 1-4 witnesses, involves no counter-complaint, and results in a win and a weak appeal or no appeal by the complainant. Assisting in cases like these from start to finish (from the time you receive notice that a formal complaint has been filed to the end of the hearing) can take about 70 hours of work across 6 months, but some factors can skew these figures much higher or lower.

For example, a case can end early if it is dismissed or resolved through informal resolution (like mediation). A case can also take fewer hours if an advisor is hired midway or late in the process, although this is not recommended. A case can take more hours and last longer if there is a counter-complaint, an incompetent or biased investigator, or if there are more witnesses, more complainants, more alleged incidents, more evidence, a high level of parental involvement, turnover of staff involved in the case, or more alleged policy violations than usual. These are just a few of the most common examples. Our shortest case took 12 hours and our longest case took 112.

Conclusion

I hope this guide has helped you understand how to prepare for hiring an advisor to assist in your case. If you have any questions or need assistance with a Title IX investigation, call us at ‪(903) 309-0332‬ for a free consultation, book an appointment on a Title IX advisor’s calendar, or use the contact form to message us.