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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 13 / Friday, January 22, 2021 / Notices
Executive Orders pertaining to ALJs: E.O.
13,843 giving agencies control over the hiring process of ALJs add other pertinent EOs
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Sample Website Text for Administrative Judges If agencies have different kinds of adjudicators, they should consider providing a separate web page for each.
About Our Insert Adjudicator Title Adjudicator title at agency conduct hearings and decide cases/review appeals under name of authorizing acts. They are part of the agency component in which adjudicators are located, which is directed by title of office head and has offices in cities. Visit link to agency organization chart to see how office relates to other offices at agency.
Agency is committed to ensuring that all hearings and appeals are conducted in a fair and equitable manner. Parties are entitled to a due process hearing presided over by an impartial, qualified adjudicator title.
Adjudicator title resolve cases involving kinds of cases in a fair, transparent, and accessible manner. Our adjudicator title are appointed pursuant to authorizing statute by agency official for terms of number of years years, and are describe qualifications. Adjudicator title are paid according to the pay scale for the adjudicator with link to the scale or the discretion of the agency head.
Cases are describe how cases are assigned. The adjudicator title assigned to your case is responsible for job duties, like taking evidence, hearing objections, issuing decisions. Description of policies if any exist that ensure the agency component or adjudicators remain independent from investigative or enforcement activities.
Description of rules about ex parte communications, if any exist.
Agency official or body is responsible for evaluating the quality of adjudicator title decisions, and agency official or body conducts performance reviews of adjudicator title. Agency official/entity from another agency may remove the adjudicator title or agency official or body/
other entity may discipline the adjudicator title by kinds of discipline when warranted.
The agency has adopted rules of recusal link that allow a participant to request that the adjudicator title in charge of his or her case be disqualified if the participant believes the adjudicator title cannot fairly and impartially decide the case.
If you are dissatisfied with an adjudicator title decision, you can request reconsideration from the adjudicator title or appeal that decision to agency office/
official. Visit link for information on appealing an adjudicator title decision.
Agency office/official may also review your case on its/his or her own initiative if there is an issue with the adjudicator titles decision.
For Further Information:
Hiring process: link Pay rates: link Bonuses and performance incentives: link
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How cases are assigned to adjudicator title: link Communicating with adjudicator title ex parte communications: link Process for addressing allegations that an adjudicator title has a conflict of interest recusal and disqualification procedures:
link How to appeal an adjudicator title decision: link Case-processing goals: link Process for addressing allegations of adjudicator title misconduct: link See also:
Statutory provisions regarding adjudicator title, including the appointment authority:
statutory citations Agency regulations governing adjudicator title: CFR provisions Appendix B
Note: Appendix B has been omitted from this notice because of the inaccessible images it contains. The full appendix may be found online at https www.acus.gov/
recommendation/publication-policiesgoverning-agency-adjudicators.
Administrative Conference Recommendation 20206
Agency Litigation Web Pages Adopted December 17, 2020
Federal agencies and their component units 1 participate in thousands of court cases every year. Most such cases result in agency litigation materials, which this Recommendation defines as including agencies publicly filed pleadings, briefs, and settlements, as well as court decisions, where such materials bear on agencies regulatory or enforcement activities.
Public access to agency litigation materials is desirable for at least two reasons. First, because agency litigation materials often clarify how the federal government interprets and aims to enforce federal law, they can help people understand their legal obligations. Second, public access to agency litigation materials promotes accountable and transparent government. Those two reasons distinguish agency litigation materials from litigation filings by private parties.
However valuable public access to agency litigation materials might be, federal law does little to mandate it. When it comes to agencies own litigation filings, only the Freedom of Information Act FOIA requires disclosure, and then only when members of the public specify the materials in which they are interested and no FOIA exception applies.2 In the same vein, the EGovernment Act of 2002 requires federal courts to make their written opinions, including opinions in cases involving federal agencies, available on websites.3 But that 1 The term component units encompasses an agencys sub-units, which are often identified under terms like agency, bureau, administration, office, division, or service. For example, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service is a component unit of the Department of the Interior, and the Office of Water is a component unit of the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
2 See 5 U.S.C. 552a3.
3 See 44 U.S.C. 3502a.

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requirement has not always made judicial opinions readily accessible to the public, partly because most courts websites lack functions and features that would allow users to easily identify cases about specific topics or agencies.
The most comprehensive source of agency litigation materials is the federal courts Public Access to Court Electronic Records PACER service, which provides the public with instantaneous access to virtually every document filed in every federal court. But PACER searches often cost money, and the costs can add up quickly, especially when users are uncertain about what cases or documents they are trying to find. PACERs limited search functionality also makes it difficult to find cases involving particular agencies, statutes, regulations, or types of agency action. For example, a person interested in identifying ongoing cases to which the United States Fish and Wildlife Service FWS is a party would have to search for a host of termsincluding United States Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the names of FWSs recent directorsjust to come close to identifying all such cases. Even after conducting all those searches, the person would still have to scroll through and eliminate search results involving state fishand-wildlife agencies and private citizens with the same names as FWSs recent directors. Similarly, were a person interested in finding cases about FWSs listing of species under the Endangered Species Act ESA, PACER would not afford that person any way to filter search results to include only cases about ESA listings. The persons only option would be to open and review documents in potentially thousands of cases.
The cost and time involved in performing this type of research limit PACERs usefulness as a tool for locating and searching agency litigation materials. And although paid legal services, such as Westlaw and Lexis, have far greater search capabilities than PACER, their costs can dissuade many individuals and researchers.
Agency litigation web pages, by contrast, can be a convenient way for the public to examine agency litigation materials. For purposes of this Recommendation, an agency litigation web page is a web page on an agencys website that systematically catalogs and links to agency litigation materials that may aid the public in understanding the agencys regulatory or enforcement activities.
When agencies maintain up-to-date, searchfriendly agency litigation web pages, the public can visit them and quickly find important filings in court cases concerning matters of interest. Agency litigation web pages thus make it easier for the public to learn about the law and to hold government accountable for agencies actions.
Several federal agencies already maintain agency litigation web pages.4 A survey of websites for twenty-five federal agencies revealed a range of practices regarding 4 See Mark Thomson, Report on Agency Litigation web pages 1416 Nov. 24, 2020 report to the Admin. Conf. of the U.S., https www.acus.gov/
report/report-agency-litigation-web pages.

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