Pre-Trial Timeline

After a case is initiated with the UJC the following will happen:

1. A letter will be sent to you from the UJC informing you the date, time, and place of your UJC trial; and the name of the UJC counselor that has been assigned to you for your case.
2. Your counselor will contact you to set up an appropriate schedule to meet and go over your case.
3. You will be contacted by a UJC investigator as he/she performs their investigation of the case.
4. You will meet with your counselor and prepare for your trial as needed leading up to and including the day of the trial.

Trial Procedures

The trial room is set up very similar to an actual court room.  The judges for the trial sit in front of everyone.  The complainant, the accused student, and their respective counselors sit at their own tables on different sides of the room.  In the middle of the room is a podium from which counselors give their opening and closing statements, and the witness chair where witnesses will provide testimony during the trial.  Also present in the trial room are the UJC investigator and UJC educator assigned to your case.

Every trial begins with an introductory statement given the trial chair, who is a judge, a member of the UJC’s executive committee, and will be the person presiding over the trial.  After this statement the trial chair will ask you and the accused student the following questions:

1. Have you had adequate time to prepare for your case?
2. Have you been advised of your right to Counsel?
3. Have you been informed of your right to call witnesses?
4. Are there any Judges sitting before you whom you feel are unable to be fair and unbiased in this proceeding?

At this point the trial chair will ask the accused student how they plead to the charges against them.  Depending on their answer the hearing will either move into a trial for guilt or a trial for sanction.  Either way, both will follow the same basic format and will roughly follow this order:

1. Opening statements by counselors from both sides.
2. The Complainant will present their case with their witnesses, which you and your counselor will have the opportunity to cross-examine.
3. You and your counselor will then have the opportunity to present your case and call your witnesses.
4. Closing statements by counselors from both sides
5. Everyone will leave the trial room and the trial panel will make their decision.
6. If it was a trial for guilt and the accused student was found guilty, then the trial for sanction will begin immediately.  If the accuse student was found not guilty, or it was a trial for sanction, then the proceeding is over.