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On March 6, 2002, the DC Office of Administrative Hearings Establishment Act, (DC Law 14-196) was passed by the DC Council unanimously. This act was the result of a study published by the Council for Court Excellence in September 1999, entitled “Creating a Unified Administrative Hearings Agency in the District of Columbia,” which recommended the District of Columbia establish a centralized hearings agency. Since that time, CCE has been working in collaboration with Mayor Williams, Kathy Patterson, and the DC Council to establish a broad-based, properly conceived unified hearings agency for the District. The Office of Administrative Hearings commenced its operations in January 2004.

CCE’s study of DC’s administrative adjudicatory system involved reviewing over twenty DC agencies, boards, and commissions which hold adjudicatory hearings. As of the date of the 1999 study, twenty-three states and two cities had centralized these adjudicatory entities into what is usually called a central hearing panel, or an independent office of administrative hearings.

Application of this concept in these other jurisdictions suggest the following benefits: faster disposition of cases; increased confidence by litigants that the process is fair; and increased compliance with agency rules and regulations The Executive Summary of the Council's study describes the project background and work products, key policy issues, main study conclusions, and lists which D.C. governmental units would be included and excluded were the Council for Court Excellence recommendations to be adopted.

This study documented D.C. agency administrative adjudicatory practices, and the "best practices" of other jurisdictions which had adopted the Central Hearing Panel concept.

Click here to read the CCE Testimony on Establishing an Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings before the D.C. Judiciary Committee, May 23, 2001.

Click here to view a copy of the DC Council Act which established the Office of Administratice Hearings.

DC Office of Administrative Hearings
825 North Capitol Street, NE, Suite 4150
Washington, DC 20002 (202) 442-9091
Website: http://oah.dc.gov/oah/site/default.asp

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