The North Dakota Office of Administrative Hearings: Providing fair and timely options for resolving administrative disputes
By Kylie Blanchard, Clearwater Communications
The North Dakota Office of Administrative Hearings’( OAH) mission is to conduct orderly, fair, and impartial hearings and to issue prompt, reasoned recommended or final decisions.“ When individuals come to the OAH, they start with a clean slate,” says OAH Director Hope Hogan.“ We are somebody who hasn’ t heard the story up until that point.”
The OAH was established in 1991 under N. D. C. C Ch. 54-57. It serves as North Dakota’ s central panel, which employs or contracts with administrative law judges independent from the agency for which the OAH is conducting hearings and issuing decisions.“ In some states, agencies offer these hearings, but in North Dakota we have a central panel,” says Hogan.“ Some agencies and boards are required to use the OAH for hearings, but some choose to use us.”
The Role of the OAH
“ We are the step between the agency decision and the district court,” says Hogan.“ We can be appointed in different capacities by conducting hearings, issuing recommending decisions, or being the final decision-maker.”
The OAH is staffed by two full-time administrative law judges( ALJ) and two full-time staff members, as well as contracts with other ALJs. Hogan serves as one of the ALJs and says the agency’ s judges carry full caseloads. In her role as director, she also assigns cases, manages staff, and oversees the agency’ s budget.
ALJs preside for a variety of agencies at the state and local level in areas including workers compensation, human services, public utilities, health and safety, personnel, and financial institutions. They work to resolve complex issues arising in disputes between an agency and an individual or business or in an application to an agency seeking specific authority or licensure.
She notes North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance and the North Dakota Department of Health and Human Services are two agencies required by state statute to use OAH for administrative hearings. The North Dakota Department of Transportation holds its own administrative hearings, and the North Dakota Public Service Commission uses the OAH to conduct its hearings but not issue decisions, says Hogan.
The hearings held at OAH are similar to a court hearing, but more relaxed, says Hogan.“ ALJs ask more questions of witnesses than you would see from a judge because we want to make sure we understand,” she notes.“ Our biggest job is making findings a fact.”
Only an agency head or personnel specifically designated by the agency head can make a request for an administrative law judge. Hogan says each agency’ s rules and policies vary, which can make OAH hearings challenging as well.“ Every agency can have its own rules for procedures. With administrative law, there is a whole other level of rules.”
In most cases brought to the OAH, there is a party that doesn’ t have an attorney representing them in a hearing, Hogan notes. It is also the role of the ALJ to help that individual understand the process and hearing.“ When people get to us, they have already been in a dispute with the agency for a while,” Hogan says.“ It can be rewarding to have those people say,‘ thank you for listening to my side of the story.’”
After a decision or recommendation is rendered by the ALJ, it can be appealed to the district court and even to the North Dakota Supreme Court.“ We offer due process for people who want to challenge administrative agencies. While we are not the agency, when we do these hearings, we step into the role of agency decisionmaker,” says Hogan.
A Learning Opportunity
Hogan completed her undergraduate degree at North Dakota State University and received her law degree from the University of North Dakota School of Law.“ It wasn’ t necessarily my plan to go into law,” she notes.“ I just kind of ended up in law school to get a graduate
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