The Institute for Administrative Justice is an integral part of the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, one of California’s most distinguished law schools.

The Institute employs a professional staff of attorneys and maintains a panel of contract attorneys. This highly skilled group, dispersed among 11 regional offices, has represented clients in over 500,000 administrative hearings throughout California. Primarily, this representation has been provided through the Institute’s California Parole Advocacy Program (CalPAP) pursuant to a contract with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The distinguished service that CalPAP provides has been recognized publically. In 2005, CalPAP received the Program of the Year award from the California Public Defenders Association.

Attorney services can be contracted on a per-case basis or hourly depending upon the nature of the case.

The Institute employs a group of experienced adjudicators who have resolved disputes ranging from complex special education matters to code enforcement cases for local municipalities.

In addition to operating entire hearing systems, the Institute’s hearing officers are available to adjudicate disputes under short-term contracts or on an individual case-by-case basis.

The Institute can create and operate independent hearing systems for agencies, local municipalities, and courts to relieve the burden of increased caseloads. For sixteen years, the Institute administered a hearing program under contract with the California Department of Education that consisted of processing initial requests for hearing, ruling on law and motion matters, mediating cases, holding hearings, issuing written decisions, and case tracking and data management.

Mediation is a voluntary meeting between people who are involved in a dispute, together with a neutral person (the mediator) who has training and experience helping people settle conflicts. Mediation is confidential and the parties themselves have the opportunity and authority to agree on a resolution. The mediator does not act as a fact-finder, judge, or advocate for either side.

The Institute for Administrative Justice has a group of highly trained mediators.  The Institute’s mediators helped school districts and parents of children with disabilities resolve disputes over the right of individual children to a free appropriate public education under contract with the Department of Education from 1989 to 2005.

Mediation services are available to provide services under contract with an agency or on a case-by-case basis.

The Institute contracts with state and federal agencies and local municipalities to provide training for governmental personnel, including administrative law judges, hearing officers, investigators, expert witnesses, and case presenters.

The Institute has successfully trained hundreds of attorneys in the area of parole revocation defense since 2004. Additionally, the Institute has trained in excess of 2,000 new disability hearing officers for the Social Security Administration from all across the United States.

The Institute’s personnel typically provide the formal training sessions; however, the Institute is unique because as part of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, it can draw upon experts to provide valuable training on an array of substantive legal issues.

The Institute has developed and implemented a revolutionary, Web-based database able to track and store comprehensive case information for more than one million cases. This system was designed by key Institute personnel who have vast knowledge of, and experience dealing with, legal data systems. The Institute’s database specifically serves the needs of a large client base that is spread throughout a statewide network of offices. It contains more than 150 data fields, including text boxes for narrative information.

This secure system has been professionally engineered to provide for the rapid assimilation of data and movement of information among offices. A thorough set of protocols for data collection and entry has been developed to ensure a uniform procedure exists resulting in standardized data reporting. The system promptly produces useful, clear, accurate reports.

The Institute can provide case tracking and data management services for other entities or can consult regarding the creation of independent systems modeled after the Institute’s.

The Institute contracts with municipalities, State and local, districts, colleges, universities, and private businesses to provide independent investigations of discrimination and harassment claims arising under FEHA, Title VII, ADA, and ADEA.

The Institute’s investigators are attorneys, and many are experienced adjudicators. The investigators remain independent and neutral — they do not advocate on behalf of parties to a dispute. The investigations are designed to meet employers’ obligations to conduct prompt, thorough, and impartial investigations of discrimination and harassment claims in the workplace, but the quality and neutrality of the investigation may also lead to early dispute resolution.

At times organizations find themselves faced with navigating emotionally charged topics in small group and large group settings. The Institute’s trained meeting facilitators can help your organization conduct productive and efficient meetings with multiple participants and/or multiple and complex issues. Our facilitators have a variety of backgrounds that include graduate degrees in law, education, social work and several are attorneys.

Our meeting facilitators can do the following:

• Propose and develop a meeting agenda prior to the meeting after talking with the meeting participants;
• Guide the meeting process so that each participant’s comments and viewpoints are heard and understood by the others;
• Help the meeting participants achieve consensus and closure;
• Assist the participants to develop an action plan to implement after the meeting.

A meeting facilitator does not offer content material to the meeting discussion. The facilitator guides the meeting process so that all viewpoints are heard and understood. The Institute’s facilitators are located throughout California and are accustomed to traveling to locations convenient and accessible for the meeting participants.

The Institute for Administrative Justice utilizes its trained attorneys and mediators to facilitate meetings.