Working with Appeals and Hearings
Agency staff can request an appeal on behalf of the responsible party, for a violation, citation or abatement that the responsible party has received. The details of the requested appeals, their hearing schedules, and decisions can be seen in the case details — Appeals and Hearings page.
Registered public users can request appeal for their case as a responsible party, using the Resolve Issue page. Permissions to access the case is issued by the agency staff after the user requests access. For information about registered users requesting access and requesting appeals, see Resolving Issues.
Code officers such as a code technician can directly schedule hearings for a case, independent of appeals.
Viewing Appeals and Hearings
Select the Code Technician Worklist tile on the Agency Springboard and select the Hearings tab. This page lists only the cases that are appealed, with a hearing schedule. Click View More Details for the case row you want to access.
Alternatively, you can access the Appeals and Hearings page by selecting the Cases tile on the Agency Springboard. Click View More Details for the case you are working with. Click Case Information and select Appeals and Hearings in the left panel.
The Appeals and Hearings page lists all the appeals and hearings for the case:
Page Element
Description
Source
Review the details of the record:
Source – Appeal or Hearing
Responsible Party
Date of creation
Hearing Body
Review the name of the hearing body that is assigned to the case hearing.
Hearing Date
Review the date on which the hearing is scheduled.
Status
View the status of the hearing:
Not Scheduled: The hearing is not scheduled.
Scheduled: The hearing is scheduled.
Completed: The hearing is completed with a decision outcome.
Responsible Party
Review the name of the responsible party for the case.
Attachments
View, add, or delete attachments related to the hearing.
A numeric value on the badge shows the number of attachments added. If there are no attachments, no value is shown.
Click the icon with the badge to open the Attachments page and view the list of attachment files with the details of description and name of the uploader.
The Actions menu allows you to view details, download, or delete attachments.
Note: You can delete only the attachments uploaded by yourself.Click the Add button to upload a new attachment. For details, see Working with Attachments.
Actions
Click to view the actions you can perform on the record, which are based on the status of the case – Hearing or Appeal:
Schedule Hearing: Select to schedule a hearing by selecting a hearing body and an available date.
Reschedule Hearing: Select to change the hearing date.
Update Hearing Decision: Select to enter the decision made in the hearing and add corrective actions.
Cancel: Click to cancel the appeal or hearing.
Adding an Appeal
You can request an appeal only if there is no active appeal for the case. The time period within which you can request an appeal is determined by your administrator and is set up in the Time Rules page. For more information about time rules, see Setting Up Time Rules.
Select the Cases tile on the Agency Springboard.
On the Cases page, click View More Details on the case for which you want to request an appeal.
Click Case Information and select Appeals and Hearings in the left panel to open the list of appeals and hearings.
Click Add Appeal. The Add Appeal page opens.
Page Element
Description
Appellant
View the name of the responsible party.
Appeal Date
View the appeal date, which is the current date.
Appeal Reason
Enter the reason for requesting the appeal.
Click Save. The new appeal for the case is created with a case status of Appeal, and any scheduled inspection is canceled.
Adding a Hearing
You can directly schedule a hearing for a case, without an appeal request. To add a hearing:
Access the Appeals and Hearings page.
Click Add Hearing to open the Schedule Hearing page.
Page Element
Description
Appeal Source
View the source of the appeal, which is Hearing
Hearing Body
Select the hearing body from the available list.
Hearing Date
Select a hearing date from the available options, which is determined by the schedules of the hearing body and the agency.
Responsible Party
View the name of the responsible party related to the case.
Click Save. The new hearing for the case is scheduled with a case status of Hearing, and any scheduled inspection is now available for reschedule on the Inspections page. If there is no scheduled inspection, then the Schedule Hearing button is available. For details, see Working with Code Enforcement Inspections.
Also, the Attachment icon is enabled on the Appeals and Hearings page so that you can add any attachments related to this hearing.
You can reschedule a hearing by changing the date of the hearing. Click the Reschedule button available on the hearing record and select the new date of hearing.
The Reschedule option is also available on the:
Code Technician Worklist: On the Hearings tab select Reschedule from the Actions menu.
Code Officer Worklist: On the Hearings tab select Reschedule from the Actions menu.
Updating Hearing Decision
After the public hearing is completed and the hearing body announces their decision, the assigned code technician updates the decision in the case details using the Appeals and Hearings page.
Select the Code Technician Worklist tile on the Agency Springboard and click the Cases tab.
Select the Code Technician Worklist tile on the Agency Springboard and select the Hearings tab. This page lists only the cases that are appealed, with a hearing schedule. Click Actions and select Update Hearing Decision.
You can also navigate using the case list. Select Cases on the Agency Springboard to view a list of all cases. On the Cases page, click View More Details for the case you are working with. Click Case Information and select Appeals and Hearings in the left panel to open the list of appeals and hearings.
Click the Action button on the row of the appeal or hearing you are working with and click Update Hearing Decision.
Note: This option is not available for a completed appeal row.Enter the decision related information on the Update Hearing Decision page:
Page Element
Description
Hearing Body
View the name of the hearing body assigned for the hearing.
Hearing Date
Select an available date for the hearing.
Responsible Party
View the name of the responsible party for the case.
Hearing Decision
Select the hearing decision from options set up by your administrator.
Examples of decision options can be Compliance, Not in Compliance, Continue, No Outcome, and others.
If you select the option related to non compliance, you must change the status of the case in the New Case Status field.
Decision Date
Enter the date on which the hearing decision was taken.
New Case Status
Select the new status for the case from the list of available statuses. Depending on the status you select, the workflow stages and their tasks are accordingly updated.
The list of transaction statuses along with each of its associated system status are set up by your administrator. See Setting Up Transaction Statuses.
Note: The Update Status option is available only if your agency has enabled the Available to Manually Select as New Status option on the Transaction Status page. If the option is disabled, the case status changes are triggered only by the code enforcement workflow.Comments
Enter any text for reference.
New Compliance Due date
Select a date by which the responsible party must ensure compliance. This option appears if the new status of the case is violation, citation or abatement.
New Citation Due date
Select a date by which the responsible party must pay the citation fee. This option appears if the new status of the case is citation.
Corrective Actions
Click Add to open the Corrective Actions page, search and select one or more corrective actions from a list. You can edit the description of each of the actions using the Rich Text formatting option.
Attachments
Click Add to open the Attachments page and include any documents.
Click Save to close the Update Hearing Decision page and show the updated records on the Appeals and Hearings page. Depending on the options selected, the status of the case changes and the workflow stages and their tasks are updated. See Using Workflow.
Also, an inspection is scheduled as needed, a citation record is created, and a notice is sent to the responsible party. See Working with Code Enforcement Inspections, Working with Notices, and Working with Citations.