Administrative Law and the Courts

An Administrative Law Judge or ALJ presides over a formal process of adjudication within administrative agencies. And so administrative agencies formulate regulations and in carrying out these regulations or determining whether someone has violated the regulation, there might be a proceeding before an administrative law judge. And so those proceedings often look very formal like we might think of a trial in a federal court. There might be evidence presented, there might be witnesses come in and testify and so an Administrative Law Judge would be making the determinations about whether the evidence comes in, kind of regulating the course of how the witnesses testify. And then at the end of the day, reaching a decision in the matter of the adjudication. And in some cases, Administrative Law Judges through legislation by congress have been given power to also impose certain sanctions. So Administrative Law Judges look at a range of issues. There are hundreds of Administrative Law Judges in our governmental system and Administrative Law Judges exist in a range of agencies. Ranging from the Securities and Exchange Commission to the FCC across the board and within administrative agencies. Administrative agencies engage in two major types of action. One is rule making which is when agencies formulate regulations that establish new kind of rules or principles that govern behavior. So perhaps limiting pollution or creating certain regulations governing the workplace. Um and then those regulations are applied to people who are supposed to follow them. So the Administrative Law Judge is overseeing the adjudication side of administrative agencies. Where administrative agencies evaluate whether an individual or a company has violated an administrative regulation and if so, what kind of penalty or fine or consequence should be imposed.