Background

This transmittal amends section I-2-1-80, The Right to Representation, of the Hearings, Appeals, and Litigation Law (HALLEX) manual to add instructions for administrative law judges (ALJs) and Office of Hearings Operations (OHO) staff on what steps to take if a claimant appears for a hearing and requests to appoint an individual who is not registered with the agency as a representative per 20 CFR 404.1705 and 416.1505.

Explanation of Content and Changes

This transmittal revises HALLEX I-2-1-80 as follows:

I-2-1-80 B.2 – We revised subsection B.2 and changed the title to “Claimant Appears for Hearing and Requests to Appoint an Unregistered Individual as Representative,” I-2-1-80 B.2 now provides ALJs and OHO staff with instructions on what steps to take if a claimant appears for a hearing and requests to appoint an individual who is not registered with the agency as a representative. We also included references to instructions for situations when an individual who is not registered with the agency submits a Form SSA-1696 and requests to be appointed to a claim prior to a scheduled hearing and included citations to HALLEX I-1-1-11 and Standard Hearing Operation Procedure (SHOP) section 1.3.5.6 which provide additional instructions.

I-2-1-80 B.2.a – We added instructions for ALJs on the steps to take if a claimant appears for a hearing and wishes to appoint an individual who is not registered with the agency as a representative. In such a situation, the ALJ informs the claimant that they may request a postponement or proceed with the hearing unrepresented and the ALJ provides the claimant with right to representation information. If the claimant requests postponement, the ALJ must advise the claimant and the individual that if the individual fails to register with the agency before the next hearing, the claimant must be prepared to proceed unrepresented at the next hearing, absent extraordinary circumstances. We also included a note specifying that agency delay in timely completing an individual's registration would constitute an extraordinary circumstance that would justify another postponement.

I-2-1-80 B.2.b – We noted that if the ALJ grants a postponement to give the unregistered individual time to register with the agency, hearing office staff will follow the directions in the Standard Hearing Operations Procedure section 4.5.3 to provide the unregistered individual with information about registration.

I-2-1-80 B.3 – We moved the subsection “Postponement of Hearing to Obtain Representation” from B.2 to subsection B.3. We updated B.3 to note that an ALJ should grant a claimant's postponement request when the claimant appears at a hearing and wishes to appoint an unregistered individual as representative, to give the individual the opportunity to register. Subsection B.3 also states that that an ALJ will typically only grant one postponement in such a situation, absent extraordinary circumstances.

Date: December 10, 2024