The changing face of discovery in administrative hearings

It used to be that a respondent would receive the full investigative file from the Department of Financial Institutions upon request, and a month or two before the prehearing conference.  Six months ago the Department of Financial Institutions decided to turn over only partial files before the prehearing conference.  When attorneys at the Rosenberg Law Group, PLLC challenged the Director regarding this practice, his response was to cut off the informal discovery that used to happen.  Now, no evidence is turned over until the administrative law judge orders it at the prehearing conference.  In reality, that means 30 days after the prehearing conference.The implications of this development are all negative.  This means that no meaningful settlement negotiations can occur until well after the prehearing conference.  It means that hearings must be set further off than before to allow respondents to obtain and review the material.  Justice is delayed.  Scarce judicial resources are used up.  Why? It is simply not clear why the Department has opted for this course of action.  Perhaps the Department feels that its Financial Legal Examiners are overmatched by respondent’s attorneys and wants to shield them.  Perhaps the Department does not care about justice and knows that justice delayed is justice denied.