When may an administrative agency hold an online public hearing by itself, without an in-person public hearing held alongside it?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file we read the agency's record of how the hearing was announced and held, any paper showing whether an in-person public hearing took place at the same time, and any document recording why an ordinary hearing was difficult or how often it failed through no fault of the agency.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading states that an agency may run an online public hearing only in parallel with the public hearing the Act requires. Holding one alone needs one of three grounds: national safety or protection of rights, such as the protection of life, body or property, making an ordinary hearing difficult; a hearing that could not be held or went awry through no fault of the agency having reached the number the provision sets; or the agency's own recognition that a sole online hearing is needed to gather opinions widely.
The third ground carries a carve-out written into the provision: where the public hearing is being held in the circumstances the provision identifies by cross-reference to other items of the same Act, the agency cannot rely on its own recognition of need. The provision names those cases rather than describing them, and it leaves the method and procedure of an online hearing to presidential decree.
Your judgment
If the agency relies on its own recognition of need, what in the file would show that gathering opinions widely required holding the online hearing alone?
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 grounds for a sole online hearing or the carve-out on the third ground, or if a court decision construes when an ordinary public hearing cannot be held through no fault of the agency.