People who challenge state agencies in the administrative hearing
process may come away with the idea that it's hard to win. A study
published in the November issue of the North Carolina Law Review indicates
those impressions are on target.
Charles E. Daye, the Henry Brandis professor of law at the UNC School
of Law in Chapel Hill, included in his study of the results of 3,400 cases
brought before the N.C. Office of Administrative Hearings between 1985 and
1999. He found that the agencies won 76 percent of the time.
In decisions that went against a state agency, the agency rejected the
decisions of the administrative law judges -- as they had the right to do
-- nearly half the time, Daye's study said. Of the people that took their
cases against the agencies to court, 8 percent won.
The Office of Administrative Hearings handles all kinds of complaints
against agencies, from disputes between a government employee and a
supervisor to conflicts over government fines.
The sense that it's hard to win against state agencies may have helped
fuel a recent change in the law governing how the process works.
Daye said in the past, with cases that went to court, the court in
effect presumed that the agency decided the case correctly, putting the
burden on those bringing the case to prove otherwise. Beginning this year,
when the agency rejects a ruling that favors the citizen, there is no such
presumption, he said.
The November issue of the law review also will include articles by
state Sen. Brad Miller, the Raleigh Democrat who negotiated the recent
revisions to the administrative process, and by Chief Administrative Law
Judge Julian Mann III.
The study does not try to determine why the challenges so often fail.
Daye said it could be that the petitioners don't have the legal
representation they need. Or maybe, it's that the agencies are right, he
said.
"I wouldn't want anyone to interpret my study as a criticism of what
agencies are doing," Daye said in an interview. "My sense is that North
Carolina agencies are very competent, proficient and do a good job."
