The Role of Digital Evidence in Title IX Cases: Protecting Yourself Online

January 29, 2025
The Role of Digital Evidence in Title IX Cases: Protecting Yourself Online | KJK

Formal complaints of Title IX violations typically result in investigations and hearings. The hearing process may involve analyzing various forms of digital evidence. Understanding this evidence and how it can impact your case is critical to your defense.

 The experienced attorneys at KJK provide support to individuals facing Title IX violations and associated criminal and civil proceedings. Our practice has over 60 years of combined experience handling these and other education-related matters. We are a nationally recognized Title IX defense team, including Best Lawyers’ 2025 Lawyer of the Year. If you are involved in Title IX proceedings, contact us today to discuss your case in a confidential setting.

What Is Title IX?

Before understanding the role of digital evidence in Title IX cases, it’s essential to have a strong understanding of  Title IX. Title IX is a federal civil rights law that protects students and employees of educational institutions that receive federal funding from sexual discrimination and harassment.

Sexual harassment, sexual assault, and other unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature all fall within the purview of Title IX. Title IX can also involve domestic violence, gender-based violence, stalking, discrimination on the basis of sex, and other prohibited conduct.

To find that a respondent is responsible for violating a school’s Title IX policy, there must be at least a preponderance of evidence. This evidence could include physical evidence, as well as digital evidence.

What Is Digital Evidence?

According to the National Institute of Justice, digital evidence is information stored or transmitted electronically, found on devices such as computers, phones, and cloud storage. This evidence is used in legal proceedings. Digital evidence is often taken from servers and can help establish important information about legal allegations.

What Type of Digital Evidence Is Allowed in Title IX Cases?

Title IX cases are more lax in admitting evidence than criminal cases because there are no rules of evidence. Criminal cases have more stringent standards regarding authenticity and the admissibility of evidence than in college’s specific Title IX policies. Often, in criminal proceedings, digital forensic experts and other expert witnesses may be called to authenticate this evidence. Additionally, digital evidence may implicate privacy concerns or Fourth Amendment violations in criminal cases. These considerations are not present in Title IX proceedings.

Various forms of digital evidence may be used in Title IX cases, such as: 

  •     Text messages
  •     Emails
  •     Social media posts
  •     Audio recordings
  •     Video recordings
  •     Media files
  •     Cloud storage
  •     Data backups
  •     Media files
  •     Geolocation data 

An experienced attorney can help gather or challenge digital evidence to help your case.

The Role of Digital Evidence in Title IX Cases

Many Title IX cases are he-said/she-said situations. Digital evidence can be a reliable and objective way to help determine what happened. Digital evidence can provide meaningful context. This evidence usually takes one of the following forms:

Evidence to Prove Allegations

Digital evidence may help to prove the allegations against the accused. Sometimes, the digital evidence shows the respondent committed prohibited conduct. For example, it may show online harassment or disseminating revenge porn.

The complainant may provide the Title IX investigator copies of text messages or social media messages that:

  •     Ask for sexual favors
  •     Contain lewd remarks
  •     Include pornographic images
  •     Make threats of rape or sexual violence
  •     Demonstrate sexual coercion
  •     Depict cyberstalking
  •     Apologies or other admissions of responsibility

Other digital evidence may help support the complainant’s version of events, such as video footage that shows the complainant and respondent at the same party, ride sharing receipts or even digital receipts of purchases made around the time of the incident.

Evidence to Aid in Your Defense

Another critical role of digital evidence is to support the respondent’s defense strategy. For example, an internal investigation may uncover that the complainant was the one who initiated conversations or sexual comments. Evidence could also demonstrate the sexual activity was fully consensual.  

The Role of Social Media in Title IX Cases

Because most people today are on social media, the parties’ social media profiles may be a critical part of the investigation process. Social media posts are often used as evidence in these cases. Many people chronicle their daily lives on these platforms.

Individual schools and universities are responsible for creating and implementing Title IX policies. Some have limitations regarding the use of social media in Title IX proceedings, while others do not

Social media posts could be used various ways in Title IX investigations, such as:

  •     Photos of the complainant and respondent together at a function
  •     Photos of witnesses
  •     Comments by witnesses
  •     Communications between the complainant and respondent
  •     Messages complainants or respondents made after the alleged behavior
  •     Threatening or harassing communications

Even though some social media platforms do not continue to store messages on them, people could take screenshots or recordings of these messages, preserving them for use as evidence in subsequent legal cases. Critical information may be embedded in the metadata, such as:

  •     The location where the message was posted
  •     The date and time of the message
  •     The browser used to make the social media message
  •     The poster’s IP address

Because social media can directly impact a case, it’s crucial that respondents understand their rights and how to protect themselves during Title IX proceedings.

Safety Tips for Digital Evidence in Title IX Cases

If you have been accused of violating Title IX, it’s crucial that you take steps to protect yourself online. Here are some tips to help you accomplish this objective:

Read the Title IX Policy

Carefully review the language in your school’s Title IX policy regarding how social media can and cannot be used in your case. For example, your school may prohibit using evidence regarding other sexual encounters with third parties unless they are relevant to your case. Let your attorney know if you think the school has violated these policies.

Don’t Delete Your Account

While you might think the easiest thing to do is to simply delete your account, this action could have serious repercussions for your case. Even if you primarily use a platform like Snapchat that deletes messages, the complainant or witnesses could have screenshots or recordings of the very messages you are trying to delete. Deleting your account could be misconstrued as a way to destroy evidence and ultimately used against you. This could be particularly problematic if you are investigated for criminal charges in a parallel proceeding.

Additionally, your account may contain helpful information that could help exonerate you, so deleting your account could actually harm your defense strategy.

Don’t Try to Defend Yourself Online

You might be tempted to try to clear your name online. Your immediate gut instinct may be to try to declare your innocence or tell your story online, especially if you think that the complainant has spread a very negative narrative about you. However, anything you say online could potentially be used against you in a later legal proceeding, so simply refrain from doing this.

Don’t Contact the Complainant

Many respondents may also think they should immediately contact the complainant. They might think they can clear up a misunderstanding or convince the complainant to drop the allegations. However, schools routinely impose no-contact orders once someone makes a formal complaint under Title IX. Confronting the complainant on social media can provide evidence that you have violated this order and land you in legal trouble.

Be Mindful About What You Post Online

Information you post or share online could become part of the official investigation report, so you should be very careful about what you post online. While you might think a picture or post is harmless, it could be extremely damaging in your Title IX case.

Increase Your Privacy Settings

While your case is pending, increase your privacy settings to the most secure option available. Still, don’t assume that what you post is actually private.

Contact an Experienced Attorney

You don’t have to go through this process alone. An experienced lawyer can advise you on the steps to take in your particular situation.

How Can a Title IX Defense Lawyer Help Me?

Title IX charges can potentially result in expulsion from school, suspension, degree revocation, loss of financial aid, and other repercussions. An experienced attorney can do the following to support your Title IX case:

Gather Evidence 

Digital evidence can be critical for a defense.  An experienced attorney can identify and gather evidence related to your case. They may:

  •     Interview witnesses
  •     Obtain written statements
  •     Review social media pages
  •     Request surveillance footage
  •     Watch videos shared online

Preserve Evidence

A lawyer can also help to preserve evidence so it is not lost. They may digitally preserve text messages, emails, social media posts, and screenshots to present later during the hearing process. We can also preserve critical metadata that can help corroborate the source and origin of digital communications.

Corroborate Assertions

We can sometimes use digital evidence to corroborate key points and support your version of events.

Organize Evidence

Once our attorneys have gathered reliable digital evidence, we can find ways to organize it in an effective way. This could be based on a chronology of events or by the strongest evidence presented first, depending on the strategy.

Present Evidence

An experienced lawyer from our firm can help present digital evidence in a clear manner. We ensure that any evidence we present is relevant and admissible based on your school’s particular Title IX policy.

Provide Context

Digital evidence can help provide valuable context to a situation. Our experienced attorneys can explain the circumstances surrounding the evidence so it is not misinterpreted.

Challenge Evidence

Our attorneys can challenge evidence that violates your rights or your school’s Title IX policies. Our goal is to safeguard your rights.

Engage Experts

In some cases, it might be necessary to have an expert witness who can refute or corroborate digital evidence. For example, an expert witness may be able to explain how a screenshot or recording has been altered and cannot be relied upon. Forensic experts may also be able to recover evidence that was previously deleted. Our legal team can work with experts to ensure they present findings and complex information in a way investigators and hearing officers can understand.

The KJK Legal Defense Strategy

At KJK Student & Athlete Defense, our lawyers have an intricate understanding of all legal issues related to Title IX, including guidelines and laws regarding the admission of evidence in these proceedings. We have over 60 years of combined legal experience and stay updated on the latest developments in law and technology.

Our experienced lawyers understand how to present digital evidence at hearings and other legal proceedings. We can evaluate evidence to demonstrate that consent was obtained from the complainant. We will also look for digital evidence that refutes the complainant’s story or supports yours.

Contact an Experienced Lawyer Today to Discuss Your Case

If you are accused of violating Title IX, do not delay in reaching out to a skilled lawyer for legal assistance and representation. The KJK Student & Athlete Defense team can review the charges against you, challenge digital evidence used in your case, advise you of how evidence may affect you, and support you throughout every phase of your case.

Contact us today to schedule a confidential consultation with a dedicated member of our legal team.