PROJECTS

Update on Changes to the Uniform Rules of Procedure

An ad hoc committee tasked with reviewing the Uniform Rules of Procedure has submitted recommended changes to the Executive Council of the Administrative Law Section. The recommended changes may be viewed here.

The recommended changes address, among other things: filing by e-mail, new requirements for qualified representatives, contents of the notice of rights, new requirements relating to service of papers, appearances by specifically-named persons, intervention, additional requirements in connection with the duty to confer, a new rule regarding disqualification of the presiding officer, the computation of time, informal proceedings, emergency action and bid protests.

Members of the Committee are: Paul Drake (Reporter), Seann Frazier, Judge Yolonda Green, Judge Elizabeth McArthur, Judge Li Nelson, Shaw Stiller, Judge Dave Watkins and Larry Sellers (Chair).

The Committee’s work included some 13 meetings over 15 months. It benefited greatly from numerous public comments.  The Committee initially solicited suggestions and then developed several drafts that were distributed for comment, including drafts dated June 18, 2019, September 18, 2019, and November 4, 2019, –all of which were posted on the Section web site. Updates on the Committee’s work were provided to the Section’s Executive Council in June and November. The Second Report of the Uniform Rules of Procedure Committee dated November 1 may be viewed here.

Following this second report, the Committee solicited and evaluated additional comments and issued yet another draft for comment, dated January 31, 2020. The Committee received several new comments and issued its recommended changes, dated April 27, 2020. The Committee received several more comments and issued one additional recommended change on March 24, 2021. The comment period is now closed.

If the Executive Council approves the recommended changes, then these will be submitted to the Administration Commission, which has the exclusive authority to propose and adopt changes to the Uniform Rules of Procedure.

The Uniform Rules were last updated in 2013 based on recommendations from the Section. For a summary of these changes, see the April 2013 issue of the ALS newsletter.   As in 2013, any amendments to the Uniform Rules will become effective only if formally proposed and adopted by the Administration Commission in accordance with the rulemaking process in the APA.