When may an administrative agency under the Administrative Procedure Act correct its own disposition, and who can set that correction in motion?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
For this exercise, we read the copy of the disposition as issued, to see whether the wording or the arithmetic on its face carries the flaw. The application for correction and any notice the agency sent to the parties show who set the correction in motion and when it reached them.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the provision as it stands: where a disposition contains a misprint, a miscalculation or another mistake plainly of the same kind, the agency must correct it on its own initiative or on an application without delay, and must notify the party.
Another reading stresses the word 'clearly': the provision reaches an obvious slip rather than a doubtful assessment, and it says nothing about what follows where correcting the wording would change the duty imposed or the amount due, leaving open whether that is a correction or a fresh disposition.
Your judgment
Where a corrected figure shifts the amount a party must pay, what in the file shows the flaw was clear rather than a matter of judgement?
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 define what counts as a mistake equivalent to a misprint, or if a court decision sets when a correction that changes the duty must be treated as a new disposition.