Background

This transmittal amends section I-4-3-1 of the Hearings, Appeals and Litigation Law (HALLEX) manual to update and clarify procedures when a Federal court remands a case to the Appeals Council. These revisions were necessary to remove outdated information and adhere more closely to plain language writing requirements.

Explanation of Content and Changes

We revised section I-4-3-1 as follows:

I-4-3-1 A – We added a subsection titled “Magistrate Proceedings” and incorporated information previously included in the section. We made minor editorial changes to the language.

I-4-3-1 B – We added a subsection titled “Remands From a Federal Court” and incorporated information previously included in the section. We added two sub-subsections titled “Sentence Four Remands” and “Sentence Six Remands” to better distinguish the differences in processing. For consistency purposes, we incorporated some information from HALLEX I-4-4-5 regarding sentence four and sentence six remands. We made minor editorial changes to the language to improve readability.

I-4-3-1 C – We added a subsection titled “Overview of AC Processing of Remand Orders,” removed outdated information, and updated information previously included in the section. We made other minor editorial changes to the language.

Date: September 19, 2014