Manual

for
Administrative
Law Judges
2001 Interim
Internet Edition

Morell E. Mullins University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Professor of Law William H. Bowen School of Law
Table of Contents

Preface and Introduction: 2001 Interim Internet Edition . . . . V

Preface - 1993 Edition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x

I. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
A. General Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
B. Specific APA Powers of the Administrative Law Judge . . 9
C. Alternative Dispute Resolution and Administrative Law
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1. General Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2. Relevance of ADR to Administrative Law Judges . 12
3. Confidentiality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
4. The Extension of ADR into Administrative Law . . 22

II. Prehearing Conferences & Settlements . . . . . . . . . . 27

A. Preparation for Prehearing Conference, With Emphasis on
Complex, Multiparty Proceedings . . . . . . . . . . 29
B. Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
C. Conference Transcript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
D. Management of the Conference . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
1. Opening Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2. Appearances . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3. Preliminary Matters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4. Participation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
5. Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
6. Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
7. Exchange of Information and Proposed Evidence . 35
8. Ground Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
E. Conference Report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
F. Preliminary Motions and Rulings . . . . . . . . . . . 37
G. Other Prehearing Procedures . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
H. Settlement Negotiations and ADR Possibilities . . . . 38
1. Settlements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2. ADR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Iii. Discovery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
A. Subpoenas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
B. Discovery and Confidential Material . . . . . . . . . 45
C. Testimony of Agency Personnel and Production of Agency
Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
D. Reports, Estimates, Forecasts, and Other Studies . . 48
E. Polls, Surveys, Samples, and Tests . . . . . . . . . 48

IV. Prehearing Techniques for Expediting

and Simplifying the Complex Proceeding . . . . . . . . . 49
1. Lead Intervenor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
2. Cross-Examination Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

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 3. Negotiations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
A. Written Exhibits in Complex Cases . . . . . . . . . . 55
B. Elimination or Curtailment of Hearing Suspensions . . 57
C. Stipulations and Official Notice of Documentary Material
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
D. Intervention and Participation by Non-parties . . . . 59
E. Joint Presentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
F. Organizing the Complex or Multi-Party Hearing . . . . 62
G. Special Committees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
H. Telephone or Videophone Conference . . . . . . . . . 63
I. Additional Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
K. Interlocutory Appeals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
L. Mandatory Time Limits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
M. Summary Proceedings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
N. ADR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

V. Hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
A. Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
1. Notice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
2. Place of Hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3. Hearing Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
B. Mechanics of the Hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
1. Transcript . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
2. Convening the Hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
3. Trying the Simple Case . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
a. Opening Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
b. Direct Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
c. Cross-examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
d. Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4. Trying the Complex Case . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
a. Direct Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
b. Receipt of Exhibits . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
c. Cross-examination . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
d. Rebuttal Testimony . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
e. Redirect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
f. Multiple Witness Testimony . . . . . . . . 84
g. Questions by the ALJ . . . . . . . . . . . 87
h. Closing the Presentation . . . . . . . . . 88
5. Rules of Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
a. Hearsay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
b. Best Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
6. Offers of Proof . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
7. Constitutional Privileges: Self-Incriminating
Testimony, Search and Seizure, and Suppression of
Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
8. Argument on Motions and Objections . . . . . . . 94
9. Confidential Information . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
a. Methods of Handling Confidential Material . 95

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 b. In Camera or Closed Sessions . . . . . . . 96
10. Supplemental Data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
11. Mechanical Handling of Exhibits . . . . . . . . 100
C. Concluding the Hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
1. Oral Argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
2. Conferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
3. Briefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4. Notice of Subsequent Procedural Steps . . . . . 102
5. Closing the Record . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
6. Correcting the Transcript . . . . . . . . . . . 102
D. Retention of Case Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

VI. Techniques of Presiding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

A. Preparation and Concentration . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
B. Judicial Attitude, Demeanor, and Behavior . . . . . . 104
C. Controlling the Hearing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
D. Some Common Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
E. Off-the-Record Discussions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
F. Hearing Hours and Recesses . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
G. Audio-Visual Coverage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
1. Physical Interference . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
2. Interference with the Dignity of Proceedings . . 113
3. Psychological Distraction . . . . . . . . . . . 113
H. Taking Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

VII. Conduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

A. Disciplinary Actions Against ALJs . . . . . . . . . . 119
B. Confidentiality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
C. Ex Parte Communications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
D. Bias and Recusal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
E. Fraternization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
F. Individual Requests for Information . . . . . . . . . 130
G. Interaction with Other Independent Officers . . . . . 130
H. The Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130

VIII. The Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132

A. Oral Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
B. Written Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
1. Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
2. Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
3. The Decisional Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
4. Style . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
C. Writing the Decision . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
1. Brevity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
a. Needless Words . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
b. Short Simple Words . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
c. Redundant Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
d. Short Sentences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151

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 e. Paragraphs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
2. Punctuation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
3. Active or Passive Voice . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
4. Ambiguity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
5. Stylistic Quirks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
a. Elegant Variation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
b. Litotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
c. Genderless English . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6. Miscellaneous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
a. Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
b. Technical Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
c. Attribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
d. Speech Tags . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
e. Ellipsis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
f. Latin Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
g. Write It Down . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
7. Being Clever . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
8. Rewriting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158

Appendices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Appendix I - Forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Appendix II - Selected Bibliography: Alternative Dispute
Resolution (including websites) . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
Appendix III - Selected Bibliography: Trial Manuals, Style
Manuals, and Works on Writing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Appendix IV Books, Articles (Federal & State) & State
(Books & Articles) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Appendix V - Selected Agency Procedural Rules . . . . . . . . 284

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