An official website of the United States government
IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS ANNOUNCEMENT HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO CLOSE ON TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 2017 AT 11:59 PM ET.
This examination announcement is being opened so that the current ALJ register of eligible candidates (ALJ register) can be replenished with additional qualified applicants. Once the examination process is concluded, the names and scores of applicants who successfully complete all components of the examination will be added to the current ALJ register.
Individuals who apply to take the ALJ examination are not applying for an ALJ position with the Federal government but instead for placement on the ALJ register to receive employment consideration at ALJ hiring agencies. Applicants should read this ALJ Job Opportunity Announcement in its entirety before preparing an application. Applicants must meet all the qualifications requirements for an ALJ position as described in this announcement.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reserves the right to verify information provided by the applicant during the examination process and through any part of the selection process, including any appeal and/or time the applicant's name appears on the ALJ register. Information that cannot be verified may result in designating the applicant as "ineligible" or negating the score on a particular examination component, depending upon the information at issue.
Changing Geographical Locations: If you are currently on the ALJ register, you may (but are not required to) change (i.e., add, or remove) your selected geographical location (s) during the job opportunity announcement open period. To change your selection(s), an email stating your request to change your selected locations, must be sent to aljapplication@opm.gov. See the Geographic Availability section in the Assessment Questionnaire for more details.
Submitting an updated résumé and/or Optional Listing of Significant Litigation and/or Administrative Law Cases: If you are currently on the ALJ register, you may (but are not required to) submit and updated résumé and/or Optional Listing of Significant Litigation and/or Administrative Law Cases during the job opportunity announcement open period. If you wish to do so, you must send the updated document(s) as an attachment to aljapplication@opm.gov. See the How to Apply, Important Information Regarding HOW TO APPLY for more details.
08/23/2017 to 09/05/2017
$124,380 - $172,100 per year
AL 03
Many vacancies in the following locations:
Occasional travel - Travel required for proctored and in-person assessment components, at the expense of the applicant.
No
Permanent
Full-time - Full Time
No
ALJ2017-847661
476891900
ALJs:
- Conduct formal hearings involving cases where all interested parties are given advance notice of the hearing; an opportunity to submit facts, arguments, offers of settlement or proposals of adjustment; and an opportunity to be accompanied, represented, and advised by counsel or other qualified representatives;
- Rule on preliminary motions, conduct pre-hearing conferences, issue subpoenas, control hearings (which may include written and/or oral testimony and cross-examination), review briefs, and receive or exclude (for example, on the ground that it is irrelevant, immaterial, or unduly repetitious) any oral or documentary evidence proffered for consideration; and
- Prepare and issue decisions (or initial or recommended decisions), along with written findings of fact and conclusions of law therein, upon consideration of the whole record, or those parts of it cited by a party and supported by and in accord with reliable, probative, and substantial evidence.
Preliminary Qualifications:
As part of the preliminary qualifications requirements for an ALJ position, an applicant must meet, at the time of application, the qualifications outlined in sections 1 and 2 below. OPM will review the applicant's Assessment Questionnaire to determine if the experience and licensure requirements are met.
1. Possess a full seven (7) years of experience as a licensed attorney preparing for, participating in, and/or reviewing formal hearings or trials involving litigation and/or administrative law at the Federal, state or local level; and
2. Possess a professional license and be authorized to practice law under the laws of a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any territorial court established under the United States Constitution (see specific details regarding LICENSURE below).
Specific details for each of the requirements above are as follows:
1. EXPERIENCE:
QUALIFYING EXPERIENCE: Applicants must have a full seven (7) years of experience as a licensed attorney preparing for, participating in, and/or reviewing formal hearings or trials involving litigation and/or administrative law at the Federal, State or local level. To be considered as qualifying experience, the types of cases handled under this requirement must have been conducted on the record under procedures at least as formal as those prescribed by sections 553 through 559 of title 5 of the United States Code.
Litigation Experience: Qualifying litigation experience involves cases in which a complaint was filed with a court, or a charging document (e.g., indictment or information) was issued by a court, a grand jury, or appropriate military authority and includes:
- participating in settlement or plea negotiations in advance of trial;
- preparing for trial and/or participating in trial of cases;
- preparing opinions;
- hearing cases;
- participating in or conducting arbitration, mediation, or other alternative dispute resolution process approved by the court; or
- participating in appeals related to the types of cases above.
Administrative Law Experience: Qualifying administrative law experience involves cases in which a formal procedure was initiated by a governmental administrative body and includes:
- participating in settlement negotiations in advance of hearing cases;
- preparing for hearing and/or participating in trial of cases;
- preparing opinions;
- hearing cases;
- participating in or conducting arbitration, mediation, or other alternative dispute resolution process approved by the administrative body; or
- participating in appeals related to the types of cases above.
Non-Qualifying Experience: Experience involving cases with no formal hearing procedure and uncontested cases involving misdemeanors, probate, domestic relations, or tort matters is not qualifying. Listed below are some examples of types of positions which are not qualifying:
- Claims Reviewer
- Clerk of Court
- Conferee
- Contracting Officer
- Insurance Adjuster
- Moderator
- Officer of any court not of record
- Rating Specialist
- State Unemployment Insurance Supervisor
- Law Professor
CREDITING MILITARY EXPERIENCE: For applicants entitled to veterans' preference, time spent in the Armed Forces of the United States shall be considered as qualifying experience in either of the two following ways, depending upon which will be more beneficial to applicants:
1. Such service may be considered on the basis of actual duties performed by the applicant as an attorney or military judge in the military services, or
2. Such service may be considered as an extension of the employment in which the applicant was engaged immediately before entrance into the military service. When military service is credited in this way, the applicant is considered to have continued performing the duties of the position he/she left.
For additional information, OPM has published on its website guidance on how to credit military experience at: http://www.fedshirevets.gov/.
2. LICENSURE:
An applicant must be licensed and authorized to practice law as an attorney under the laws of a State, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any territorial court established under the United States Constitution. Judicial status is acceptable in lieu of "active" status in States that prohibit sitting judges from maintaining "active" status to practice law. Being in "good standing" is acceptable in lieu of "active" status in States where the licensing authority considers "good standing" as having a current license to practice law.
An applicant must be licensed and authorized to practice law or be in an acceptable judicial status, as described in the preceding paragraph, at the time of application and continuously throughout the examination and selection process, to include any period on the ALJ competitive register and during any appeal, as defined below. An applicant can be deemed ineligible at any time if it is determined that he/she does not satisfy or no longer satisfies this licensure requirement at any point described above.
3. COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION:
Applicants who meet the Preliminary Qualifications must also successfully complete all subsequent assessment components of the OPM competitive examination which evaluates the competencies, or knowledge, skills, and abilities, essential to performing the work of an ALJ.
OPM will review the completed Assessment Questionnaire as described below to determine if you meet the experience and licensure requirements. If OPM determines you do not meet one or both of these requirements, a Notice of Results (NOR) will be issued to you indicating a rating of "ineligible" and no further action will be taken on your application. See the "Appeals Process" section below.
Applicants who have cleared the preliminary qualifications screening (i.e., the experience and licensure requirements) also are required to successfully complete other components of the ALJ examination. The purpose of these remaining components is to evaluate the competencies, or knowledge, skills, and abilities, essential to performing the work of an ALJ. These competencies include: Decision Making, Interpersonal Skills, Judicial Analysis, Judicial Decisiveness, Judicial Management, Judicial Temperament, Litigation and Courtroom Competence, Oral Communication, Problem Solving, Professionalism, Reasoning, Self-Management, and Writing.
The remaining assessment components of the examination for ALJ positions are listed below and further described in the section How You will be Evaluated, Basis for Rating:
Online Component:
Section 1 - Situational Judgment Test (SJT)
Section 2 - Writing Sample
Section 3 - Experience Assessment
Proctored Component:
Section 1 - Written Demonstration (WD)
Section 2 - Logic-Based Measurement Test (LBMT)
In-person Component:
Structured Interview (SI)
Security Clearance
Depending on the agency and position requirements, appointments may require an investigation and favorable adjudication of eligibility for access to classified information and the grant of a security clearance.
Important Note: You
must complete/submit your application in Application Manager before the ALJ Job
Opportunity Announcement closes at 11:59 pm ET on Tuesday, September 05, 2017. After the Announcement is
closed, you will not be able to complete/submit your application.
Technical Problems
If you have technical problems concerning this application
process, please send an email to aljapplication@opm.gov. Such inquiries must
include your name as it appears on your online Assessment Questionnaire to properly identify your record and address your issue.
Your submission of an inquiry does not automatically change the response
deadline for any part of the ALJ application process. Substantive questions
concerning an individual application will not be answered because doing so would give an unfair advantage in the examination process.
Privacy Act Notice
The principal purpose for collecting this information is to examine applicants
for the position of administrative law judge (ALJ). The authority for
collecting this information is 5 U.S.C. 1104, 1302, 3301, 3304, and 3330, and 5
C.F.R. 2.1, 330.104, and 930.201. The effect of not providing all or any part
of the requested information includes a rating of ineligible on the ALJ
examination. Other consequences are described in the Assessment Questionnaire,
Certification of Information Accuracy. The routine uses that may be made of
this information are in the system notice for the OPM/Central-6 system of
records under the Privacy Act, published at https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PAI-2015-OPM/xml/PAI-2015-OPM.xml#central6,
with an additional routine use published at https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2015/11/30/2015-30309/privacy-act-of-1974-routine-use-implementation-system-of-records.
You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.
Applicants must click on the following link to view complete information regarding HOW YOU WILL BE EVALUATED:
How You Will Be Evaluated
1. Résumé to be reviewed by hiring agencies only; and
2. Veterans' Preference documentation (if you are claiming Veterans' Preference)
Optional Documents:
OPTIONAL LISTING OF SIGNIFICANT LITIGATION AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE LAW CASE (Please sanitize/remove sensitive information before uploading.)
Education must be accredited by an accrediting institution recognized by the U.S. Department of Education in order for it to be credited towards qualifications. Therefore, provide only the attendance and/or degrees from schools accredited by accrediting institutions recognized by the U.S. Department of Education.
Failure to provide all of the required information as stated in this vacancy announcement may result in an ineligible rating or may affect the overall rating.
To apply for the position of ALJ, you must submit the minimum complete application package through the online processing system (Application Manager). A minimum complete package includes the following:
1. Your responses to the Assessment Questionnaire, and
2. Your résumé as specified in the Required Documents section of this ALJ Job Opportunity Announcement.
3. Veterans' preference documentation (if you are claiming veterans' preference).
In addition to these requirements, you may submit a listing of significant cases as described below. This is an optional document which can be uploaded in the "Other" document type.
LISTING OF SIGNIFICANT LITIGATION AND/OR ADMINISTRATIVE LAW CASES (OPTIONAL): The case listing is optional. You may provide this information in support of your application by identifying specific examples of qualifying experience. You may use the case listing format provided below to cite and discuss up to six (6) of the most significant litigation and/or formal administrative law cases you have prepared, participated in, and/or reviewed.
The case listing document should be uploaded as a separate document in the "Other" document type of your application. The cases will not be scored as part of the ALJ examination, but may be used by hiring agencies in their selection process. The cases will be provided to hiring agencies with your résumé if your name is on the ALJ register and is referred for employment consideration.
The case listing format is as follows:
1. Title of case and docket number (if applicable)
2. Party represented
3. Regulatory body or court hearing the case
4. Brief statement of issue(s) involved
5. Your precise role or capacity
6. Final disposition of case
7. Dates between which your participation took place
8. Presiding officer/judge with contact information (i.e., name, title/position, email address (if possible), and phone number)
9. Opposing counsel (or counsel appearing in case if applicant served in a hearing officer/judicial position) with contact information (i.e., name, title/position, email address (if possible), and phone number)
(If you must omit personal identifying information from a case name or must omit the name of the represented party due to the tribunal's privacy rules, please indicate you have done so.)
Reasonable Accommodation for online ALJ Application: OPM provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities, where appropriate. Determinations on requests for accommodation(s) for the submission of the online application will be made on a case-by-case basis. If you wish to request an accommodation(s) for the submission of the online application based on your disability, you must contact OPM for assistance by sending an email message to aljapplication@opm.gov. All requests for reasonable accommodations related to the online application must be submitted before the close of the ALJ Job Opportunity Announcement.
Note: Applications, résumés, veterans' preference supporting documents and/or any other documents will not be accepted by facsimile, postal service mail or email.
To begin the process,
1. Click the Apply Online button to create an account or sign in to your existing USAJOBS account.
2. Follow the prompts to create or select your USAJOBS résumé and be routed to the Application Manager system.
3. Complete the Assessment Questionnaire.
4. For your answers to be processed, you must click the Submit My Answers button.
Important Information Regarding HOW TO APPLY
Applicants must click on the following link to view the Important Information Regarding HOW TO APPLY:
Important Information Regarding HOW TO APPLY
Assessment Questionnaire
Applicants may click on the following link to view the ASSESSMENT QUESTIONNAIRE:
Assessment Questionnaire
After you submit your Application Package, you will be sent an email acknowledging your submission. The acknowledgement email, however, does not establish eligibility to proceed to the remaining parts of the ALJ examination. Please refer to the Basis for Rating section of this ALJ Job Opportunity Announcement for specific information about the notification process regarding the evaluation of your Assessment Questionnaire, and, if applicable, the details about the remaining parts of the examination. The ALJ assessment and examination process is comprehensive and requires an extended period of time for the process to be completed for all the applicants who applied during the announcement open period. Final numerical ratings will not be issued until the assessment and examination process has been completed for all applicants who applied during the open period.
NOTES:
- ALJ inquiries must be sent to the ALJ mailbox at aljapplication@opm.gov. OPM staff will not respond to telephone inquiries or emails sent directly to them.
- You can find out about important ALJ notices and information regarding the ALJ examination, including the release of various examination notices, on the OPM ALJ website at http://www.opm.gov/services-for-agencies/administrative-law-judges/.
- Examination information and rating information are exempt from disclosure under the FOIA and Privacy Act on the grounds that they contain and/or describe examination materials, scoring benchmarks, scoring factors, criteria and/or methods which represent confidential test material. Accordingly, such information cannot be provided to applicants or publicly posted.
The Federal hiring process is set up to be fair and transparent. Please read the following guidance.
This job originated on www.usajobs.gov. For the full announcement and to apply, visit www.usajobs.gov/job/476891900. Only resumes submitted according to the instructions on the job announcement listed at www.usajobs.gov will be considered.
Learn more about
Who May Apply: United States Citizens. With the exception of 10-point veterans' preference, applicants on the current ALJ register who received a final numerical rating on or after June 2017 are not eligible to apply to this job opportunity announcement.
Administrative Law Judges (ALJs) serve as independent impartial triers of fact in formal proceedings requiring a decision on the record after the opportunity for a hearing. In general, ALJs prepare for and preside at formal hearings required by statute to be held under or in accordance with provisions of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), codified in relevant part, in sections 553-559 of title 5, United States Code (U.S.C.). ALJs rule on preliminary motions, conduct pre-hearing conferences, issue subpoenas, conduct hearings (which may include written and/or oral testimony and cross-examination), review briefs, and prepare and issue decisions, along with written findings of fact and conclusions of law.
The Federal Government employs ALJs in a number of agencies throughout the United States and Puerto Rico. Cases may involve Federal laws and regulations in such areas as admiralty, advertising, antitrust, banking, communications, energy, environmental protection, food and drugs, health and safety, housing, immigration, interstate commerce, international trade, labor management relations, securities and commodities markets, social security disability and other benefits claims, and transportation.
