If you have been found responsible for academic misconduct, you may be facing serious punishments that can impact you beyond your academic life. That is why you should appeal the decision with the help of an experienced academic appeals lawyer. With an attorney on your side, you can be sure to come up with a compelling appeals letter that contains convincing points. Being found guilty of cheating, unauthorized collaboration, or plagiarism can have lifelong consequences. An appeal is your last chance to overturn a college conviction from a previous hearing. It provides you with a final chance to appeal to other objective school staff based on specific criteria. If you want to appeal the decision that the school made, here’s what you must keep in mind:
Acting Quickly
You need to submit your appeal within a time period, which can be as short as ten working days. Often, your notification letter tells you that you failed the test or have been expelled from the course. Ensure you research the rules and regulations before the deadline, so you can draft an appeal letter and get evidence. So, if you claim in your appeal that you were sick during the examination, you must get a note from your doctor.
Get Advice
A lot of students provide help through the student union. Although the quality of advice varies, there is usually no harm in asking for guidance. Your adviser may help look for related guidelines and regulations or assess your chances of success. But, the best person to seek advice from is an appeals attorney.
Read the Related Regulations
You need to read the regulations, so you don’t end up writing an appeals letter that does not state your grounds of appeal. Once you know the acceptable grounds, you can then organize your arguments to match. If you are appealing a failing grade, remember that you cannot appeal on the grounds that your examiner was too harsh unless you think something went seriously wrong with the marking. An experienced attorney will help you determine the appropriate grounds of appeal.Â
Concentrate on Strong Points
Your appeals statement should persuade the panel that you have a valid ground of appeal. It should contain only strong points, which means that you should not include bad arguments. So, if you state that you were ill at the time of the examination; however, you cannot provide medical evidence to support it, do not waste your time arguing this point.