The Administrative Conference mapped the contours of the federal administrative adjudicatory process. There was previously no single, up-to-date resource that painted a comprehensive picture of agency adjudications across the federal government. This study aimed to fill this gap by:
- exploring the wide variety of agency adjudicatory schemes across the federal government and their related rules of practice and case management techniques;
- cataloging and comparing the variety of matters handled by different types of adjudication;
- describing the federal administrative judiciary, including administrative law judges and other types of hearing and appellate officers; and
- collecting and analyzing agency caseload statistics and other empirical data.
This study not only updated and deepened prior studies on administrative adjudication conducted by the Conference, but also highlighted adjudicatory trends and developments (such as the use of alternative dispute resolution techniques and video hearings). Conference Recommendation 2016-4, Evidentiary Hearings Not Required by the Administrative Procedure Act, and the underlying report (click here to view the recommendation and report) stem from project-related research and data. So too does the Conference's Sourcebook on Federal Administrative Adjudication Outside the APA (click here ). Many other Conference projects have drawn from the database to formulate best practices and recommendations or will draw from it in the future.