Unprofessional Behavior Hurts Everyone
Sometimes, being professional means dealing with unprofessional people. Gottlieb & Wang only recently finished a case that was delayed by an impartial hearing officer who deferred to the DOE representative in a way that was unfair.
The hearing was originally scheduled for one day — about a four-hour block. The hearing started off as any other hearing until the DOE representative unnecessarily prolonged the entire proceeding. Unfortunately for her case, no one could ever be able to get around the fact that her witnesses were lying, and we could prove it.
In trying to attack our credibility, the DOE representative seemed upset at everything we did.
The details of the case are confidential, but the most important fact is that it involved bullying that was ongoing. Many incidents had happened, and the student had several minor injuries throughout the school year. We had evidence to show that the school was aware of these injuries. The school had reached out to our parent—clients and notified them of the incidents of injury. Yet, on the witness stand, all the school’s witnesses said none of it ever happened.
We impeached their lies using the evidence that we had submitted into the record months ago, and the DOE representative demanded that she be able to put on additional witnesses to respond to our allegedly new claims, which were not new at all because they were included in our complaint that we filed.
Our firm always adheres to all rules set forth by OATH, but instead of holding strong to the rule for the five-day disclosure, the hearing officer allowed the extra days, so the DOE rep can add a previously undisclosed witness, which for us is extremely frustrating. Not only does it prolong the hearing, but it makes our clients take on additional costs.
(We charge a flat fee for filing the complaint and working it through the settlement process, but when going to a hearing, there's another charge, and then there's another charge for each day of the hearing.)
To see — what are supposed to be impartial hearing officers — demonstrate leniency and side with the DOE in these instances is really frustrating. It doesn't seem very impartial at all. Rules are rules, and they're set as rules to be enforceable. I personally think hearing officers side with the DOE because the DOE is more likely to appeal.
For more information, contact Gottlieb & Wang.
Marc Gottlieb
Partner
195 Montague Street
14th Floor
Brooklyn Heights, NY, 11201
Marc@GottliebFirm.com
(646) 820-8506