Can You Sue for Hazing Injuries?

You can sue for hazing injuries involving fraternities, sports teams, and university organizations. Hazing initiation rituals can include beating, forced alcohol consumption, and forced sexual acts, which can cause serious injury or death. Consent to join a fraternity is not a legal defense for harm caused to students during hazing.

Hazing participants, national organizations, and universities may be liable for injuries and harm caused by failing to enforce anti-hazing regulations. For more information about filing a hazing injury claim, talk to a local personal injury attorney.

What Is Hazing?

Hazing is a group initiation practice that humiliates, degrades, causes physical harm, or risks emotional distress. Types of hazing initiations may include whipping, beating, shocking, forcing people to consume harmful substances, depriving participants of sleep, confinement, forced sexual acts, or participation in criminal activity.

Federal law defines hazing as any intentional, knowing, or reckless act committed against another person in the course of an initiation or affiliation with a student organization that causes or creates a risk of physical or psychological injury.

Hazing is most common in fraternities, but other student organizations can also practice hazing rituals. Organizations that use hazing generally have a hierarchical structure, where new members must submit to rules as directed by older or active members. Organizations that may participate in hazing include fraternities and sororities, athletic teams, academic clubs, and social clubs.

Legal Cause of Action for Hazing Injuries

If you are the victim of hazing, you can sue for any physical injuries under a personal injury claim. Tort law gives you a legal cause of action for intentionally caused injuries. If the perpetrators claim it was an accident, you can still recover damages if their negligence or recklessness caused your injuries.

In some cases, you can recover damages for non-physical injuries. You can file a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED). In an IIED claim, the injury victim generally must show the defendant engaged in extreme and outrageous conduct and intentionally or recklessly caused severe emotional distress. Examples of emotional distress related to hazing may include depression, panic attacks, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Hazing and Wrongful Death Claims

The most serious hazing accidents can result in death. When someone dies in a hazing ritual gone wrong, the family members can file a wrongful death lawsuit.

A wrongful death lawsuit can help the family recover damages for funeral expenses, loss of support, and loss of companionship.

Who Is Liable for Hazing?

Multiple parties can share responsibility in causing hazing injuries. The most obvious parties liable for hazing are the people who physically participated and created the hazing risks. You can file a claim directly against the fraternity brothers or other group members responsible for the injuries. They may be liable for intentional torts, including battery, false imprisonment, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Even if a party did not directly cause the injuries, they may be liable for negligently allowing them to happen or for failing to supervise other group members. For example, if a fraternity or sorority officer knew about dangerous hazing and did not act to stop it or report it, they may also be liable for injuries.

The student organization or university may also be liable for damages. If the university or student organization knew about the history of hazing and ignored the dangers or sanctioned the hazing activity, it may also be liable for damages. Failing to enforce anti-hazing policies or laws can also show the university’s negligence in hazing accidents.

Identifying Hazing

There is a broad spectrum of behavior that may constitute hazing, including intimidation, harassment, and violence. Less commonly recognized signs of hazing may include forced silence, demeaning names, and social isolation. More obvious signs of dangerous hazing include forced drug or alcohol consumption and beating or paddling.

Many students and athletes are unsure whether treatment counts as illegal hazing. Some red flags that you may be the victim of hazing include:

• You would feel uncomfortable if your family were watching
• Other active members refuse to participate
• You would get in trouble if university representatives witnessed the activity
• There are penalties for not keeping the events secret
• You are breaking the law
• The activity causes emotional or physical distress
• The activities could keep you from getting a job

Just because the group defends hazing rituals as tradition does not mean it is okay. Many hazing rituals put young students and others at risk of emotional distress or physical injury. If you witness possible hazing, report it to your school administration.

Federal Anti-Hazing Laws

The Stop Campus Hazing Law requires colleges and universities that participate in federal student-aid programs to report hazing incidents annually. The law also requires schools to publish their institutional hazing prevention policies and, when applicable, a Campus Hazing Transparency Report identifying student organizations found responsible for hazing violations.

However, the federal law applies to university compliance and does not create a separate legal cause of action for injury victims.

State Hazing Statutes

Hazing victims can generally file a civil lawsuit for assault or negligence based on state tort laws. However, 44 states and Washington, D.C. also have specific hazing laws that prohibit hazing, and some even provide for criminal penalties for serious hazing accidents or deaths.

Participating in or organizing hazing rituals is generally a misdemeanor offense in most states. However, some states escalate the offense to a felony when the hazing results in serious bodily injury or death.

For example, California law provides a civil cause of action for former, current, or prospective students who have suffered injury as a result of hazing for damages. Hazing victims can commence a civil action against any participant in the hazing or the associated organization.

To recover damages against the educational institution, the injury victim must show the school knew or should have known of the hazing practice, the organization involved is affiliated with the school, and the school failed to take reasonable steps to prevent the hazing practice.

University Hazing Policies

Most schools and universities also have anti-hazing policies, with institutional disciplinary sanctions and possible referral for criminal prosecution.

Potential disciplinary action includes probation, suspension, expulsion, or loss of scholarship opportunities. Student groups and organizations in violation of university policies may have their charters revoked or be put on probation.

University hazing policies and enforcement vary greatly by state. Most universities and colleges must post their hazing policies online for prospective students to review.

Get Legal Advice for a Hazing Accident Claim

Most hazing victims never come forward to report the incidents, even if they result in assault, physical injury, or mental distress. Hazing perpetrators may not even realize their conduct qualifies as hazing. Many fraternities, sororities, and student groups see hazing as part of a tradition and normalize it. Older students put new students through similar initiation rites because they went through it in the past.

Hazing can cause long-term emotional trauma, including anxiety, depression, PTSD, and difficulty sleeping. Taking legal action against hazing can help other young people avoid similar dangers in the future. For legal advice about filing a hazing injury claim, contact a personal injury lawyer.