Background

This transmittal amends section I-2-0 of the Hearings, Appeals, and Litigation Law (HALLEX) manual to add a new section, I-2-0-80, titled, “Guidelines for Calculating Timeliness of Responses,” that describes how Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) staff and Administrative Law Judges should consider the timeliness of responses to notices, decisions, dismissals, and other correspondence (hereinafter referred to as “documents”) that are mailed through central print and for documents that are sent through manual mail. HALLEX I-2-0-80 provides OHO staff with guidance on when to use central print or manual mail and how to account for noticing and response timeliness when using central print and manual mail.

Explanation of Content and Changes

I-2-0-80 A – We titled the subsection “General – Central Print and Manual Mail” and described how documents are mailed through central print and manual mail. The section states that centrally printed documents include the date the document was sent to central print on the document and that manually mailed documents include the date that the document was printed and put in the mail on the document. This section includes a reference to the Standard Hearing Operations Procedure (SHOP) for instructions on mailing notices.

I-2-0-80 B – We titled the subsection “Determining Timeliness Based on Method of Mailing” and instructed OHO staff on how to account for noticing and response timeliness when using central print and manual mail. We instructed OHO staff to add three business days to the date printed on centrally printed documents when determining whether a response to a centrally printed document is timely.

This section also instructs OHO staff to check OHO's systems (Hearings and Appeals Case Processing System and/or the Case Processing Management System) to determine whether a document was sent via central print or manual mail.

Date: May 20, 2024