If you lose after a campus hearing, or after any other kind of administrative hearing, an appeal in Superior Court is your last chance to be exonerated.

Some public entities are forthright in informing you that if you appeal a decision made by the entity, and the entity denies your appeal, you can seek reversal of the decision denying your appeal in the State Superior Court." CalSTRS advises, "If you’re dissatisfied with the Appeals Committee’s final decision, you may ask the committee to reconsider its decision or you may appeal to Superior Court." [ See here under the header "After Board Adoption of Decision." ] CalPERS advises, "A dissatisfied respondent can: Petition a Superior Court to overturn the Board’s decision." [ See here under the header "After Board Adoption of Decision." ]

Some public universities (University of California, California State University, and California community colleges) would like you to believe what they tell you when they tell you that if you appeal a decision they made to them, that appeal is the final step, and if they decide you lose the appeal, that’s the end of the road. Thus, for example, UCI states, “After the hearing, the Hearing Panel shall arrive at a final decision. When a decision is reached, the AIAO will be informed of the decision. There are no further appeals or processes.” [ See here at Section VIII.] UC Merced states, “Upon completion of the review by the appointed appeal officer the original sanction may be affirmed, modified, or reversed. The decision of the appeal officer will be final.” [ See here at Section 603.60 A.] To be fair, public universities often are silent on the question of what recourse, if any, is available after appealing decisions they made to them, if they decide you lose the appeal.

The law, by contrast, is clear. When you lose a decision after a hearing by a public or private California university or college, or by a public entity such as CalSTRS or CalPERS, I can petition for a writ of administrative mandate asking a Superior Court judge to overturn that decision. To be clear, the barrier to success on a petition for a writ of administrative mandate is high but not insurmountable: the petitioner must prove that there was not substantial evidence presented at the hearing to support the hearing panel’s decision.

I hurdled that high standard thrice within the past few years.

In September 2017, I persuaded a judge in the Superior Court for the County of Santa Barbara that there was no substantial evidence to support a UCSB hearing panel’s decision that my client had cheated on an assignment in an undergraduate class. The judge ordered The Regents of the University of California to reverse the sanction imposed on my client, suspension for a quarter, and to remove all traces of the finding that he violated the Student Conduct Code from his record, including from his transcript and from his disciplinary file.

And in April 2018, I persuaded a judge in the Superior Court for the County of Santa Cruz that there was no substantial evidence to support a UCSC hearing panel’s decision that my client had violated the Faculty Code of Conduct. The judge ordered the University of California to set aside that decision, and to undo the sanctions that had been imposed on my client by the Chancellor as a result of that decision. [The Sixth Appellate District Court of Appeal reversed the Superior Court decision on February 16, 2021.]

More recently, in June 2023, the lawsuit I filed for a UC student in Superior Court for the County of Los Angeles was so strong, The Regents didn't even bother defending that lawsuit, settling instead whereby The Regents agreed to reverse the sanction imposed on my client, suspension for a quarter, and to remove all traces of the finding that he violated the Student Conduct Code from his record, including from his transcript and from his disciplinary file. And, to boot, The Regents paid some of my client's legal expenses.