On receipt of a request for remand from an ALJ, OAO's Executive
Director's Office (EDO) will forward the email to the branch chief
with jurisdiction over the claim. The branch chief will immediately
assign the case to an analyst for review.
If the claimant submitted a request
for review but the claim has not yet been established in ARPS, the
EDO will either establish the case in ARPS before forwarding the
information to the branch chief, or will instruct the branch chief
to establish the case in ARPS.
If remanding the case to the ALJ is more administratively
efficient and advantageous to the claimant, the analyst will recommend
that the Appeals Council remand the case to the ALJ as follows:
•
If remanding an ALJ
dismissal at the ALJ's request, the analyst will enter the remand reason “Failure
to Appear Dismissal- ALJ Request Jurisdiction” into ARPS.
The analyst will then prepare a remand order, briefly summarizing
the facts and specifically stating that the ALJ requested the remand
in order to proceed with a hearing (or issue a favorable decision,
if applicable).
•
If remanding an unfavorable decision at the ALJ's
request, the analyst will enter the remand reason “New Evidence
Presented Upon Administrative Appeal/Review” into ARPS. The
analyst will then prepare a remand order, briefly summarizing the
facts and specifically stating that the ALJ requested the remand
in order to issue a favorable decision.
The “reasons for remand” entered
in ARPS propagate into the ALJ “How MI Doing” system
to, in part, provide the ALJ with information about the number of
his or her cases remanded by the Appeals Council. In these situations,
adding the correct reason for remand in ARPS is critical to avoid
assigning an error to the ALJ in the “How MI Doing” system.
If the Appeals Council agrees with the remand recommendation,
it will issue a remand order returning jurisdiction to the ALJ.
However, if the Appeals Council does not agree that a remand is
appropriate or does not otherwise find it appropriate to return
jurisdiction to the ALJ (e.g., the Appeals Council can act more
expeditiously in the claimant's favor), it will take any other appropriate
action to resolve the claim.