Administrative Adjudicatory Decisions

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Administrative Adjudicatory Decisions

• March 1, 2007

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Sources of administrative regulations
Federal
Illinois
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QUESTIONWhy do you need to worry about cases
in administrative law research?

• ANSWER precedent can be used to help
  interpret regulations in the same way that it is
  used to interpret statutes

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Finding cases depends on whether youre looking
for . . .

• Court decisions
• Decisions of an agency itself

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Review What is most efficient way to find cases
that have interpreted statutes?

• Annotated Codes (print)
• Not available for most administrative codes,
  including CFR and IAC
• Annotated Codes (electronic)
• Westlaw has notes of decisions in its
  Regulations Plus version of CFR, but not
  available for IAC

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What other ways are there to find cases
interpreting statutes?

• Digest
• cases interpreting a regulation are mixed in with
  everything else
• Citator (e.g., Shepards, KeyCite)
• CFR covered by both Shepards and KeyCite
• IAC covered by KeyCite but not by Shepards

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More ways to find cases . . .

• Westlaw or LexisNexis
• use a Westlaw database or LexisNexis source that
  contains cases (i.e., NOT the CFR or IAC database
  which contain only the regs but not the cases
  that have interpreted them)
• search query should include title number /n or
  /s section number and perhaps some key words
  and/or date limitations

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First place to dispute an agencys interpretation
of a regulation in a specific situation?

• The adjudicatory process of the agency itself
  (exhausting your administrative remedies)
• This produces various decisional type
  authorities, though eventually may go to regular
  court system if still not satisfied

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Types of Administrative Decisions

• Advisory opinions
• Decisions of administrative law judges
• Formal appellate-court like decisions

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Publication Forms of Agency Decisions

• Official print
• Official electronic Federal
• Example Decisions Orders of National Labor
  Relations Board
• Access through Federal Administrative Decisions
  Other Actions (Univ. of Va.)
• Access through LSU Libraries Federal Agency
  Directory

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More official sources . . .

• Official electronic State
• Example Illinois Human Rights Commission
  Decisions
• Access through State of Illinois Home Page

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Unofficial Sources for Agency Decisions

• Looseleaf Services (print or electronic
  equivalent)
• Unofficial Reporters
• Westlaw
• Administrative Decisions link under U.S.
  Federal Materials
• LexisNexis
• Administrative Agency Materials link under
  Federal LegalU.S.