In our ongoing effort to make protest hearings more efficienct, we've added a new field to the protest decision form.  Above the facts found is a new section called Procedural Matters.  Typically procedural issues were included in the facts found section or not included at all.  The new field is an effort to better identify and disclose those issues.  For example, here are few issues that would now be identified in the new field.

1. Where cases are heard together, you should describe any particular issues with that procedure.
2. Where a jury member provides some evidence, you should indicate that the parties were given notice of that at the beginning of the hearng.
3. Where information is gathered from official sources, indicate what information and source (e.g.; scores, measurement, accredidation, MNA number)
4. Where observers are in the room, indicate who is observing and that they were given notice about how to conduct themselves during the hearing.
5. When the hearing is heard with only one party, indicate who was absent and the rule under which the hearing proceeded.

Procedural Matters will show on the final decision so, as with facts found and conclusions, write full sentences and use punctuation.  And it also appears on the judge's notes page, so jury members can see what the scribe is writing real time during a hearing.

And one additional note, we continue to experience difficulties with the editor used for these fields.  You probably won't notice any problem, but if you do, please email us.  We are working on a much simpler replacement and will re-style the decision page when we replace the editor to make it less confusing.