Directives in Similar Cases

by Gene Doyle, LMSW

New York State's Fair Hearing regulations [18 NYCRR Part 358] include the following provisions:

§ 358-6.3 Direction relative to similar cases

     When a fair hearing decision indicates that a social services agency has misapplied provisions of law, regulations, or such agency's own State-approved policy, the [Office of Administrative Hearings' (OAH's)] letter transmitting such decision to such agency may contain a direction to the agency to review other cases with similar facts for conformity with the principles and findings in the decision.

§ 358-6.5 Compliance with direction relative to similar cases

     When a direction has been given to a social services agency to correct a misapplication of law, regulations or such agency's own State-approved policy in all cases similar to the one in which a decision has been issued, such social services agency must report the actions it has taken to comply with such direction to the commissioner or OAH within 30 days after receipt of the direction. The social services agency must make such additional reports as the commissioner may require.

This administrative equivalent of a judicial class action has been in place for nearly half a century but has been used most sparingly. See 18 NYCRR former § 84.17, adopted January 16, 1968, effective March 1, 1968, which remained in effect through April 21, 1972; 18 NYCRR former § 358.21, adopted April 21, 1972, effective April 22, 1972, which remained in effect through January 14, 1989; 18 NYCRR §§ 358-6.3 and 358-6.5, adopted December 23, 1988, effective January 15, 1989, which remain in effect to the present time.

Arguably, this mechanism enables the Commissioners of the New York State Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance (OTDA) and of the New York State Department of Health (DOH) to fulfill their supervisory duties as the heads of the single state agencies responsible for the statewide administration of New York's various social services programs.

More often than not, appellants' requests for directives in similar cases are denied because the evidence in the record of the Fair Hearing does not adequately demonstrate that the local agency has misapplied law, regulations or State-approved policy beyond the individual appellant's case circumstances.

Fair Hearing Decision Digest on Directives in Similar Cases

The following table lists some of the Decisions After Fair Hearing and Decisions Without Hearings [see 18 NYCRR § 358-6.2] that have, in fact, contained directives in similar cases. In the majority of these decisions, the directives are only prospective in nature despite the authority in 18 NYCRR § 358-6.3 to direct the local social services agency "to review other cases with similar facts for conformity with the principles and findings in the decision."

Decisions issued since November 2010 are available through the Fair Hearing Decision Archive of the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH).

You can also search for selected decisions in the Online Resource Center's (ORC's) Fair Hearing Bank, which requires registration. After you are registered, log in to the ORC's Fair Hearing Bank.

Note: Some of the regulations upon which these directives were based have been subsequently amended.

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