The court legal assistant will determine if the court imposed a time limit or if the remand has been delayed (see Hearings, Appeals and Litigation Law manual HA 01460.005 B) and flag the case accordingly. These cases always require expedited handling at all stages of processing.

The court legal assistant will enter the remand into the Appeals Review Processing System (ARPS). If the court has imposed a time limit for the Office of Appellate Operations to take action on the remand, the court legal assistant will also enter the time limit information into ARPS.

The court legal assistant will review the remand order to determine if there are additional documents, such as magistrate judge reports or new evidence submitted to the court, that must be obtained. In the case of circuit court remands, both the circuit and district court remand orders must be in the file. If the court legal assistant determines that the case is not ready to be worked because some document(s) is not in the file, CCPRB staff must request the missing document from the Office of the General Counsel office that handled the case. If the remand is time-limited the court legal assistant must not delay the case to request the missing evidence.

As soon as a remanded case is ready to work, the court legal assistant will prepare the case for the branch chief to assign it to an analyst.