Before the hearing

Appeal summary

Once the Appeals Division informs your agency of an appeal for a fair hearing, draft an appeal summary. The appeal summary summarizes the issues, including timeliness of the appeal and the facts and reasons for your agency’s action(s) leading to the appeal. Include all supporting documentation with your summary. Examples of supporting documentation are:

· The notice of action

· The appellant’s request for appeal

· Relevant legal citations

· Applications

· Overpayment calculations

· Verifications.

Send the appeal summary, using State Agency Appeals Summary DHS-0035-ENG (PDF), to the appellant and the Appeals Division at least 3 working days before the date of the hearing. Your agency may also choose to submit a narrative summary instead of the form. The appellant has the right to review any information related to the hearing prior to the hearing date.

Informal conference

Before the hearing, the CCAP agency must offer an applicant or a participant a conference with your agency to resolve the appealed issue informally. The CCAP agency is not obligated to, but may, offer a child care provider an informal conference. It is recommended the informal conference include a CCAP supervisor or a lead CCAP worker.

The CCAP agency must inform the applicant or the participant that the request for a conference is optional and does not delay or replace the right to an appeal. If the conference resolves the issue, ask the appellant to contact the Appeals Division to withdraw the appeal. Do not delay sending the appeal request to the Appeals Division pending an informal conference.

Appeal hearing

To allow for proper notification, the Appeals Division normally holds hearings at least 5 days after it issues the hearing notice. Hearings can be held sooner if the appellant and human services judge consent. Many hearings are held by telephone, but in certain circumstances, a hearing may be conducted either in-person or by videoconference.

After the hearing

After the hearing, the human services judge writes a recommendation to the Commissioner of Human Services’ delegate, typically one of the co-chief human services judges. The co-chief human services judge makes the final decision and issues an order affirming, reversing, or modifying the action of the CCAP agency or DHS. If the co-chief human services judge disagrees with the human services judge's recommendation, the co-chief human services judge will send a letter to the parties indicating they are considering making a different decision with a copy of the human services judge’s recommended decision and, in most cases, a proposed amended decision. Each party has 10 days to present additional written arguments before a final decision is issued.

Requesting reconsideration

If the appellant or the agency disagrees with the final decision, either party has 30 days from the date of the final decision to ask for a reconsideration.

When requesting reconsideration, the request must state the reasons why the appellant or the agency believes the decision should be reconsidered. The request may include legal arguments and may include proposed additional evidence supporting the request. If additional evidence is proposed, the appellant or the agency must explain why the evidence was not provided at the hearing. The Director of the Appeals Division may reconsider an order upon request of either party, or on the Director’s own motion. If reconsideration is granted, the Director will issue an order affirming, reversing or amending the original order, or remanding the matter back to a human services judge for further proceedings. The original order takes effect even if there is a request to reconsider.

Appealing in district court

The appellant or the agency may also appeal to state district court. This is a separate legal proceeding that must be appealed to district court within 30 days from the date the final decision was issued. An appeal to district court may be filed instead of a request for reconsideration or after a request for reconsideration has been denied. Either party may also appeal to district court to enforce an appeal decision.

Legal authority

Minnesota Statutes 119B.16
Minnesota Statutes 256.045
Minnesota Statutes 256.0451
Minnesota Rules 3400.0230