The Administrative Conference undertook a project to map the contours of the federal administrative adjudicatory process, including both “formal” adjudication conducted under the Administrative Procedure Act and “informal” adjudication. There was no single, up-to-date resource that painted a comprehensive picture of agency adjudications across the federal government. This study aimed to fill the knowledge gap by:
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exploring the wide variety of agency adjudicatory schemes across the federal government and their related rules of practice and case management techniques;
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cataloging the types of matters handled by formal and informal adjudication respectively;
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describing the federal administrative judiciary, including administrative law judges and other types of hearing and appellate officers; and
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collecting agency caseload statistics and other empirical data.
The study's findings are available in a public database. This database serves as a unique resource for members of Congress and their staffs, agency officials, federal judges, and the general public.