In what form must an application for a disposition be made to an administrative agency, and when is an electronic application treated as made?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file we read the copy of the application as filed, any public notice the agency posted setting another method in advance, and any other statute, decree or the like said to govern this kind of application. For an electronic application we read the record of the input into the agency's computer, since the provision fixes the moment of application by that input.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the written form as the rule: an application seeking a disposition must be made in writing, and this holds unless another statute, decree or the like specially provides otherwise or the agency has publicly announced another method in advance. Where the application is made as an electronic document, it is deemed made at the moment it is entered into the agency's computer.
Another reading stresses what the written-form rule does not reach: it does not say how a public announcement of another method must be made or published, nor how the moment of entry into the agency's computer is to be proved, so a file that turns on either point is not settled by this provision alone.
Your judgment
If the agency says it had announced another method, what in the file would show that the announcement was made in advance and reached the public?
PRO SE does not make this decision or keep a case record on this public site.When to reconsider
We look at this again if the provision is amended to change the written-form rule or the moment an electronic application is deemed made, or if a court decision explains what proof fixes the time of entry into the agency's computer.