                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

FORMAL HEARINGS; LITIGATED ISSUES (§ 2.2-4020)

A. The agency shall afford opportunity for the formal taking of evidence upon
relevant fact issues in any case in which the basic laws provide expressly for
decisions upon or after hearing and may do so in any case to the extent that
informal procedures under &#xA7; 2.2-4019 have not been had or have failed to
dispose of a case by consent.

B. Parties to formal proceedings shall be given reasonable notice of the (i)
time, place, and nature thereof; (ii) basic law under which the agency
contemplates its possible exercise of authority; (iii) matters of fact and law
asserted or questioned by the agency; and (iv) contact information consisting of
the name, telephone number, and government email address of the person
designated by the agency to respond to questions or otherwise assist a named
party. Applicants for licenses, rights, benefits, or renewals thereof have the
burden of approaching the agency concerned without such prior notice but they
shall be similarly informed thereafter in the further course of the proceedings
whether pursuant to this section or to &#xA7; 2.2-4019.

C. In all such formal proceedings the parties shall be entitled to be
accompanied by and represented by counsel, to submit oral and documentary
evidence and rebuttal proofs, to conduct such cross-examination as may elicit a
full and fair disclosure of the facts, and to have the proceedings completed and
a decision made with dispatch. The burden of proof shall be upon the proponent
or applicant. The presiding officers at the proceedings may (i) administer oaths
and affirmations, (ii) receive probative evidence, exclude irrelevant,
immaterial, insubstantial, privileged, or repetitive proofs, rebuttal, or
cross-examination, rule upon offers of proof, and oversee a verbatim recording
of the evidence, (iii) hold conferences for the settlement or simplification of
issues by consent, (iv) dispose of procedural requests, and (v) regulate and
expedite the course of the hearing. Where a hearing officer presides, or where a
subordinate designated for that purpose presides in hearings specified in
subsection F of &#xA7; 2.2-4024, he shall recommend findings and a decision
unless the agency shall by its procedural regulations provide for the making of
findings and an initial decision by the presiding officers subject to review and
reconsideration by the agency on appeal to it as of right or on its own motion.
The agency shall give deference to findings by the presiding officer explicitly
based on the demeanor of witnesses.

D. Prior to the recommendations or decisions of subordinates, the parties
concerned shall be given opportunity, on request, to submit in writing for the
record (i) proposed findings and conclusions and (ii) statements of reasons
therefor. In all cases, on request, opportunity shall be afforded for oral
argument (a) to hearing officers or subordinate presiding officers, as the case
may be, in all cases in which they make such recommendations or decisions or (b)
to the agency in cases in which it makes the original decision without such
prior recommendation and otherwise as it may permit in its discretion or provide
by general rule. Where hearing officers or subordinate presiding officers, as
the case may be, make recommendations, the agency shall receive and act on
exceptions thereto.

E. All decisions or recommended decisions shall be served upon the parties,
become a part of the record, and briefly state or recommend the findings,
conclusions, reasons, or basis therefor upon the evidence presented by the
record and relevant to the basic law under which the agency is operating
together with the appropriate order, license, grant of benefits, sanction,
relief, or denial thereof.

HISTORY: 1975, c. 503, § 9-6.14:12; 1986, c. 615; 1991, c. 584; 1993, c. 898;
1995, c. 398; 2001, c. 844; 2016, cc. 39, 694.