Adversary Process Trial

When someone violates an administrative agency’s rules and regulations, they must go through the adjudication process. This process is made up of several steps than can result in an appeal or rising to a higher level of court. To start with, agencies have their own separation of power. There is a group who writes the rules, another group that prosecutes violators, and a group to decide if a rule has been broken and the penalties. This results in the adversary process trial. The trial is held in front of a hearing officer, also known in some agencies as administrative law judges. For this trial, the hearing officer acts both as judge and jury. Moving on, in the event where a party disapproves of the outcome an appeal can be filed. The appeal …show more content…
From here, there are three mutually exclusive options it can take. However, the option it takes is already predetermined by Congress during the drafting of an agency’s enabling act. The first option is a special court set up for that specific agency. This is usually chosen for technical matters, such as the court of claims against the United States. In this option, a third trial de novo is held. It is the same as the previous two with the exception of the person deciding the outcome. Also, both questions of law and fact can be found in the trail. The second option is for the appeal to go to a court of appeals. This is an ordinary appellant court that mostly deals with written documents and sometimes oral arguments. Only questions of law may be determined in the trial. Unlike the first option, there will be no third trial de …show more content…
It simply has no indication of where the appeal goes. Thus, the decision defaults to the Administrative procedure act which sends the appeal to a district court. In this court questions of law and fact can be determined. There is also a third trial de novo that takes place. Once the appeal is sent to its arranged destination, it goes up the federal court ladder as necessary. To clarify, options one and two will go to a court of appeals. After the court of appeals it will go to the Supreme Court, just like option three. To summarize, the adjudication process can have a multitude of steps. It all depends on whether or not a favorable outcome will be continuously