In today’s Federal Register, ACUS has published a notice soliciting public comment on a revision of its 1993 Model Adjudication Rules.  Comments are due by 10:00 am EDT on Friday, February 23, 2018.  The Committee on Adjudication is having a meeting to discuss the revised rules on February 1, 2018 from 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm EDT.

The project to revise the 1993 rules was launched in 2016, and the revisions has been prepared by the Model Adjudication Rules Working Group.  The 1993 rules and the new project are described in the Federal Register notice:

Released in 1993 by a similar working group of the Conference, the Model Adjudication Rules were designed for use by federal agencies to amend or develop their procedural rules for hearings conducted under the Administrative Procedure Act.

Numerous agencies have relied on the Conference’s 1993 Model Rules to improve existing adjudicative schemes; and newer agencies, like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have relied on them to design new procedures. Significant changes in adjudicative practices and procedures since 1993—including use of electronic case management and video hearings—necessitate a careful review and revision of the Model Adjudication Rules. In reviewing and revising the Model Rules, the Working Group has relied on the Conference’s extensive empirical research of adjudicative practices reflected in the Federal Administrative Adjudication Database, available at https://acus.law.stanford.edu/; amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure since 1993; and input from agency officials, academics, practitioners, and other stakeholders.

Professor Kent Barnett of the University of Georgia School of Law is the Working Group’s Reporter, and Daniel Sheffner is the ACUS Staff Counsel for the project.  The members of the working group are:

• Thomas McCarthy (Chair), Administrative Law Judge, Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission
• Reeve Bull, Research Director, Administrative Conference of the United States
• John Coleman, Deputy General Counsel for Litigation and Oversight, Legal Division, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (Alternate: Jack Barrett, Senior Litigation Counsel)
• David Engstrom, Professor of Law, Stanford Law School
• Jeffrey Freund, Senior Counsel, Bredhoff & Kaiser, PLLC
• Nancy Griswold, Chief Administrative Law Judge, Office of Medicare Hearings and Appeals, Department of Health and Human Services (Alternate: Brian Haring, Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge)
• John Irving, Of Counsel, Kirkland & Ellis
• Emery Lee, Senior Research Associate, Federal Judicial Center
• Tommy Rogers, Chairman (Retired), Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission
• Jean King, General Counsel, Executive Office for Immigration Review, Department of Justice (Alternate: Patricia Allen, Associate General Counsel)
• David Shonka, Principal Deputy General Counsel, Federal Trade Commission (Alternate: Kenny Wright, Attorney)
• Matt Wiener, Vice Chair and Executive Director, Administrative Conference of the United States

You can RSVP for the Committee on Adjudication’s February 1 meeting here, and you can submit comments on the revised Model Rules by 10 am EDT on February 23 here.

This post is part of the Administrative Conference Update series, which highlights new and continuing projects, upcoming committee meetings, proposed and recently adopted recommendations, and other news about the Administrative Conference of the United States. The series is further explained here, and all posts in the series can be found here.