Patrick Nagle, Chief Administrative Law Judge, Office of Hearings Operations

Dear Colleague,

The Office of Hearings Operations is changing the way notices, decisions, and other correspondence mailed to claimants and representatives are dated. After we add a document to the claimant’s electronic file, we generally use a central printing facility for printing and mailing. Previously, we would postdate centrally printed documents 3 business days in the future to account for the central print mailing time.

Effective May 20, 2024, we stopped postdating centrally printed documents. All documents mailed through central print, including administrative law judge decisions and Notices of Hearing, are now dated with the date the document was added to the electronic file and sent to the central print facility. This change is a result of processing challenges encountered in our previous postdating practices.

How will this Affect the Timeliness of Our Responses to Documents?

The change to our postdating policy will not affect how we assess whether a response to one of our notices is timely. As defined in our regulations, the date an individual receives notice is “5 days after the date on the notice, unless you show us that you did not receive it within the 5-day period.” (See 20 CFR 404.901 and 416.1401.)

We will continue to factor in an additional 3 business days of mailing time, beyond the 5 days presumed in the regulations, when mailing notices by central print and when determining whether a reply to a centrally printed notice is timely. The Appeals Council will continue to evaluate timeliness of a request for review pursuant to existing policies and will assess whether good cause exists for a late filed request for review, including any delays due to central print mailing time.

Identifying Documents Sent by Central Print

Documents sent by central print include a string of numbers and letters that appear vertically on the right side of the document. The central print identifying text appears on the paper copy of the document that is mailed to the claimant and appointed representative. It does not appear in the version that is uploaded to the electronic file.

Documents Printed and Mailed from Our Hearing Offices

While we send most of our mail through central print, we occasionally print and mail documents from our hearing offices. When we mail a document from a hearing office, the date we mail the document is the date that appears on the document. We do not consider any additional mailing time, outside of what is required in our regulations, for documents mailed from the hearing office because there is no reason to do so.

Questions

For questions or to determine if a document added to your claimant’s file was mailed by central print or from a hearing office, please contact the claimant’s servicing hearing office.

Visit our webpage to learn more about the updates to our mailing practices and to see an example of a document sent by central print.

Sincerely,
 
Patrick Nagle
Chief Administrative Law Judge
Office of Hearings Operations

NOSSCR Note:

In accord with this policy change, OHO has also added HALLEX I-2-0-80 “Guidelines for Calculating Timeliness of Responses,” that describes how OHO staff and Administrative Law Judges should consider the timeliness of responses to notices, decisions, dismissals, and other correspondence that are mailed through central print or sent through manual mail.