Background

This transmittal amends chapter I-1-5 of the Hearings, Appeals and Litigation Law (HALLEX) manual to remove outdated references and to clarify the processes that hearing offices and the Office of Appellate Operations (OAO) use to process litigation-related inquiries and litigation holds.

Explanation of Content and Changes

We made the following changes:

We changed the title of the chapter from “Litigation- related Inquiries” to “Litigation-Related Inquiries and Holds.”

I-1-5-1 – We changed the title of the section to “Litigation-Related Inquiries and Processing.”

I-1-5-1 A – We reorganized the information in this subsection to set forth the parts of a litigation-related inquiry more clearly and precisely.

I-1-5-1 B – We changed the formatting of this subsection to follow the guidelines for HALLEX. We also moved the remaining relevant information in former subsection C into the new Note in this subsection.

I-1-5-1 C – We changed the title of this subsection from “Exclusions” to “Receipt of Litigation-Related Inquiries.” In addition, we moved information formerly in this subsection into the note in subsection B, and we removed the remaining outdated information. We moved information previously in HALLEX I-1-5-2 into this subsection. We made additional edits to reflect current processes and removed outdated references to Office of Disability Adjudication and Review (ODAR) components that are no longer in existence.

I-1-5-1 D – We added this subsection and titled it “Referring Litigation-Related Inquiries.” We moved information previously in HALLEX I-1-5-3 thru I-1-5-5 into this subsection. We made additional edits to reflect current processes and to remove outdated references to ODAR components that are no longer in existence.

I-1-5-2 – We moved the information previously in this section to HALLEX I-1-5-1 C and changed the title to “Litigation Holds.” We put general information about litigation holds in subsection A, including references to record retention and disposition schedules. We added information in subsection B about how ODAR will notify staff about processing a litigation hold.

I-1-5-3 – We moved the information previously in this section into HALLEX I-1-5-1 D and entirely removed the section.

I-1-5-4 – We moved the information previously in this section into HALLEX I-1-5-1 D and entirely removed the section.

I-1-5-5 – We moved the information previously in this section into HALLEX I-1-5-1 D and entirely removed the section.

I-1-5-6 – We removed this section in its entirety because the information was outdated and referenced ODAR components no longer in existence.

Date: November 20, 2014