Whom may an administrative agency choose as a hearing officer, and what status does that person have once selected?
General information · Not legal advice
Material to check
In a practice file we read the notice of hearing to see who is named as the hearing officer, the agency's selection record showing whether that person is on its own staff or holds the qualification the Presidential Decree sets, and any paper on penalties applied to the officer.
These are types of material to look for, not evidence already verified by PRO SE.
Where readings differ
One reading takes the rule as written: the administrative agency must select the hearing officer fairly, from among its own affiliated staff or from a person holding the qualification determined by Presidential Decree, and the officer performs the duty independently and fairly, suffering no disadvantage in status against their own will for doing so.
Another reading notes what the provision does not settle: it leaves the qualification itself and the other matters of selection to the Presidential Decree, and it states only that a selected officer is treated as a public official when penalties under the Criminal Code or other laws are applied, so a file naming an officer without showing the category they fell in does not answer the scope question.
Your judgment
On what paper in the file could the category of the named hearing officer be shown to be staff or qualified person?
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 who may be selected, if the Presidential Decree fixes the qualification differently, or if a decision explains what fair selection requires.