The Opportunity:
OAH is currently looking to fill a temporary Bilingual (Spanish) Line Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) position in our Unemployment Insurance Division. The initial appointment is anticipated to be 12 months.

Line ALJs contribute to the OAH mission by managing a caseload, completing pre-hearing work, conducting hearings that are fair in substance and appearance, and issuing well-reasoned decisions within the agency's timeliness standards. This Bilingual Line ALJ position will hold hearings directly in both English and Spanish.

This position will work on the Unemployment Insurance (UI) caseload. OAH’s Spanish UI hearings are a unique program that merges due process with language access services. Hearings are held in the appellant’s first language (Spanish) and provide a more inclusive experience.

The UI caseload includes hearings on all initial appeals from UI related decisions made by the Employment Security Department (ESD). Appeals may be filed by either a claimant or former employer and are filed through the ESD. ESD transmits those appeals to OAH on a daily basis. The professional staff then schedule hearings, mail Notices of Hearing to the parties, and generally manage the case pre-and-post hearing. ALJs hear the cases (almost exclusively via teleconference) and then write and issue appropriate orders. In the normal course of business ALJs have five business days to produce an order, however in order to meet Department of Labor (DOL) standards, ALJs may be required to produce orders more quickly in cases where a DOL deadline will arrive in less than five business days. Completed orders are then distributed to the relevant parties by the professional staff.