Excessive Red Tape: Let's Curb Needless Administrative Process

It’s a good bet that when one party to a lawsuit wants a case remanded to an administrative agency, it’s the defendant. That’s because one of the primary effects of a remand is delay. But defendants should think again. Lawyers who want to save their clients time and money should not strain legal doctrine in the service of needless administrative process. Courts that get cases off their dockets by indulging them should think twice too. Cases shouldn’t leave dockets without leaving behind a sense that justice was done.

The virtues of administrative agencies are obvious. It’s their vices that should concern us. Administrative agencies have statutory authority to make decisions about matters within their expertise. Permits regarding transportation, pollution, real estate development, along with utility rates and the like are naturally within the purview of agencies with deep substantive knowledge in their fields. They make their decisions and, within their expertise, courts defer to them.