Law School Faces $5 Million Lawsuit Over Student's Alleged Code Of Conduct Violation

The former student is suing the school over alleged due process violations

A former University of New Hampshire law student, Joel Mateo, is suing the school over alleged due process violations. Mateo says the law school denied him the opportunity to be heard on an alleged code of conduct violation, which also caused him to be denied admission to two other law schools. As Law360 reports, Mateo is seeking $5.3 million in damages

The Boston resident claims his due process rights were violated. He is asking for $300,000 that he said he spent trying to obtain a legal education, $3 million in punitive damages, $1 million for defamation and another $1 million for emotional distress.

According to the complaint, Mateo withdrew from the law school in November of 2015 after it was alleged he violated the code of conduct. A year and a half later, in May 2017 he contacted the school to resolve the matter. At that time he was given two options:

According to the complaint, Mateo was given two options by UNH School of Law when he contacted it in May 2017 to try to bring the code violation allegation to a resolution. He could request an investigation and a hearing or the school’s assistant dean of students would write a letter explaining that Mateo could not return to the school unless the code violation was resolved and Mateo could write a response to that letter.

Mateo alleges he attempted the first option, but didn’t hear from the school for two weeks. He then attempted the second options but was told he’d have to re-enroll to begin those proceedings. Then in a Kafka-esque move, when he re-applied to the school, he alleges he was told he could not enroll due to the outstanding ethics charge. In the interim, Mateo also says he applied for admission to Suffolk Law School and the University of New England School of Law but was rejected due to this outstanding issue.

Mateo’s complaint alleges the inability to resolve the matter has caused him great emotional turmoil:

“On Nov. 9, 2017, plaintiff sought medical attention for the emotional distress experienced because of the defendant’s failure to provide an opportunity to confront the defendant’s allegations,” Mateo, who is representing himself, said in the complaint. “Plaintiff’s primary care physician diagnosed the plaintiff with clinical depression and commenced treatment.”

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Mateo has not addressed additional requests for comment and the law school has said they’ve yet to review the complaint.


headshotKathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

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