Quote:
Originally Posted by Kevin
The fear of lawsuits is somewhat overblown. While lawsuits get a lot of attention, actually winning these lawsuits, at least against the national fraternity or individual chapter isn't easy to do. Courts are more often than not in these cases finding that the national organization and chapter cannot be held responsible for the illegal acts of individuals who happen to be members.
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It's not really the lawsuits in and of themselves that are the problem. It's the fact that even just getting sued--not being found guilty--will raise their insurance rates drastically. We're already at the point where some of the major groups have insurance costs that are prohibitively high for smaller chapters. (I can't remember what organization it is, but there's at least one NIC fraternity where insurance costs alone are $300+/per year per member, mostly due to the number of lawsuits they're on the receiving end of. That's fine at major state Us, but it's clearly unsustainable at smaller, unhoused campuses where there will be other groups whose
total dues may not be much more than that.) Those costs are quickly rising--and with the recent refocus on sexual assault on campus and subsequent rise in women actually filing charges and those charges being treated seriously, fraternities will likely be facing an uptick in sexual assault-related lawsuits as well. Fraternities need to reverse that trend to remain viable. Being in cooperation with the local university admin and the Greek life office is a necessary part of that for almost every group. The only ones who will be exempt are the ones who already have a long history of being able to handle themselves without it.