Jerry “Trey” Falwell III has sued Liberty University for $1.75 million, saying the school violated his employment contract when it stopped paying him salary and benefits. He is asking for a jury trial.
Falwell says Liberty was still required to keep paying him through 2030, even after his father, Jerry Falwell Jr., was forced out in 2020. That dispute now sits at the center of a lawsuit that could decide whether the university owes him the money he says remains unpaid.
The filing puts a precise price on the fight: Falwell says he was making $220,000 a year when he was fired without cause, and he claims Liberty has not paid what it owes. His case is built around the contract he says survived the upheaval that followed his father’s resignation, not around whether the university had the power to end his employment at all.
Court documents say the trouble deepened after a Politico article suggested Jerry Falwell Jr. was still “effectively running things” at Liberty, drawing fresh media attention to Falwell’s own continued employment. Falwell says that article helped bring scrutiny to his position, but he maintains the school still had a contractual obligation to cover his pay and benefits for years after his father left.
That is the friction point in the case. Falwell says Liberty could fire him after the 2020 resignation, yet also says the university had to keep paying him through 2030. The lawsuit does not just seek damages; it asks a court to decide which reading of the contract controls, and whether the school’s version of his removal ended its financial obligations or only the job itself.
For Liberty, the answer will determine whether a former administrator who says he was underpaid can press the university for the full amount he believes is owed. For Falwell, the next step is now in court, where a jury would have to sort out the contract terms, the firing, and the unpaid salary he says adds up to $1.75 million.
