Admin procedure is not the same as civil procedure

Administrative procedures have their own rules. For example, most federal administrative matters are governed by the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) (5 U.S.C. Ch. 5). State and local proceedings have their own rules, which may have more or fewer rights and obligations for the parties than the rules of civil procedure for the jurisdiction. For example, Harvey Randall describes a case in his New York Public Personnel Law blog in "No right to discovery in a disciplinary procedure unless provided by law or specifically provided by the collective bargaining agreement". An employee served with disciplinary charges made prehearing disclosure demands. Her agency refused them, but an appeals board determined that this was an improper practice under the state civil service law. On further appeal, the trial court vacated the appeals board order and this was upheld by the appellate court.

The court explained:

1. In contrast to disciplinary actions, there is “firm footing” for recognizing the right of an employee organization to obtain information relevant to a potential contractual grievance concerning the interpretation, application or alleged violation of a provision of a collective bargaining agreement.

2. Disciplinary proceedings involve alleged misconduct by an employee and serve a significantly different function than a contract grievance. Although the specifications of alleged misconduct set out in the disciplinary charges must be sufficiently detailed to permit the charged employee to prepare and present a defense “there is no general right to disclosure in a disciplinary proceeding.” (However, an employee's right to disclosure ... may be provided by statute).

It appears that the appeals board applied the grievance rules under the union contract to this disciplinary proceeding, which was not covered by the contract. The lesson here is that administrative procedure rules are usually different from civil procedure rules, except when the administrative rules incorporate civil rules by reference or when the appellate process reaches the regular courts. Within the same jurisdiction the rules for different proceedings may differ. Many federal proceedings are explicitly excluded from the coverage of the APA. Don't assume. EMM