Background

This transmittal amends section I-2-8-15 of the Hearings, Appeals and Litigation Law (HALLEX) manual to update instructions for issuing recommended decisions to the Appeals Council. We also made minor editorial and formatting changes.

Explanation of Content and Changes

We revised section I-2-8-15 as follows:

HALLEX I-2-8-15 A – We moved the information previously in the subsection to subsection B. We retitled the subsection “General” and incorporated background information to provide a brief history of recommended decisions.

HALLEX I-2-8-15 B – We moved information previously in the subsection to subsection C. We retitled the subsection “Conditions for Issuing a Recommended Decision” and incorporated information previously in subsection A. We made formatting and editorial changes and provided further clarification regarding when an administrative law judge may find a recommended decision appropriate at his or her discretion.

HALLEX I-2-8-15 C – We retitled the subsection “Procedures” and incorporated information previously in subsections C and D. We updated the information and made minor editorial and formatting changes.

HALLEX I-2-8-15 D – We removed the subsection as the information was incorporated in subsection C.

Date: March 2, 2015