I-3-7-25.Remand at Request of Administrative Law Judge

Last Update: 4/20/15 (Transmittal I-3-108)

A. General

In two circumstances, an administrative law judge (ALJ) may request that the Appeals Council return jurisdiction to the ALJ in order to take a more favorable action for the claimant. As explained in Hearings, Appeals and Litigation Law (HALLEX) manual I-2-4-11, an ALJ may request jurisdiction from the Appeals Council when the ALJ dismissed a request for hearing but the ALJ has new information that would result in the ALJ vacating the dismissal order. Additionally, an ALJ who issued a decision may request jurisdiction of a claim in order to issue a more favorable decision.

In these circumstances, the ALJ or designated hearing office staff will send an email to the Office of Appellate Operations (OAO) at ^DCARO OAO, requesting that the Appeals Council remand the case to the ALJ for further action. The Appeals Council will review the request and determine whether remanding the case on request is appropriate.

NOTE:

If the claimant requested review from the Appeals Council but the request for review was not established in the Appeals Review Processing System (ARPS) before the hearing office re-activated the claim in the Case Processing and Management System, see the instructions in HALLEX I-3-1-3.

B. Appeals Council Action on ALJ's Request for Remand

On receipt of a request for remand from an ALJ, OAO's Executive Director's Office (EDO) will forward the email to the branch chief with jurisdiction over the claim. The branch chief will immediately assign the case to an analyst for review.

NOTE 1:

If the claimant submitted a request for review but the claim has not yet been established in ARPS, the EDO will either establish the case in ARPS before forwarding the information to the branch chief, or will instruct the branch chief to establish the case in ARPS.

If remanding the case to the ALJ is more administratively efficient and advantageous to the claimant, the analyst will recommend that the Appeals Council remand the case to the ALJ as follows:

  • If remanding an ALJ dismissal at the ALJ's request, the analyst will enter the remand reason “Failure to Appear Dismissal- ALJ Request Jurisdiction” into ARPS. The analyst will then prepare a remand order, briefly summarizing the facts and specifically stating that the ALJ requested the remand in order to proceed with a hearing (or issue a favorable decision, if applicable).

  • If remanding an unfavorable decision at the ALJ's request, the analyst will enter the remand reason “New Evidence Presented Upon Administrative Appeal/Review” into ARPS. The analyst will then prepare a remand order, briefly summarizing the facts and specifically stating that the ALJ requested the remand in order to issue a favorable decision.

NOTE 2:

The “reasons for remand” entered in ARPS propagate into the ALJ “How MI Doing” system to, in part, provide the ALJ with information about the number of his or her cases remanded by the Appeals Council. In these situations, adding the correct reason for remand in ARPS is critical to avoid assigning an error to the ALJ in the “How MI Doing” system.

If the Appeals Council agrees with the remand recommendation, it will issue a remand order returning jurisdiction to the ALJ. However, if the Appeals Council does not agree that a remand is appropriate or does not otherwise find it appropriate to return jurisdiction to the ALJ (e.g., the Appeals Council can act more expeditiously in the claimant's favor), it will take any other appropriate action to resolve the claim.