In 2022, the Legislature passed House Bill 629, creating the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH). The purpose of the legislation was to create an independent agency to house administrative law judges to conduct fair hearings in contested agency cases without the perception of bias. The OAH conducts contested case proceedings from most Idaho state agencies, and is also allowed to conduct adjudicatory hearings, mediations, and arbitrations requested by state agencies.
OAH is headed by a Chief Administrative Law Judge, who is broadly charged with supervising other OAH hearing officers, implementing quality controls for contested cases which OAH conducts, and to develop and maintain a code of conduct for hearing officers within OAH’s purview.
Like other State of Idaho agencies, OAH annual completes a strategic plan, outlining OAH’s goals for the next several years. The most current version of OAH’s strategic plan may be found here.
Public Records Requests
Pursuant to Section 74-119, Idaho Code, the current Chief Administrative Law Judge (Bryan Nickels) is designated the custodian of records to receive public record requests; the alternate custodian is the current Deputy Chief Administrative Law Judge (Leslie Hayes). The contact information for the current custodian, as well as the alternate custodian, is general@oah.idaho.gov.