N.M. Admin. Code § 22.600.2.21

Current through Register Vol. 35, No. 23, December 10, 2024

Section 22.600.2.21 - DUTY TO HEAR ASSIGNED CASES AND RECUSALS

A. A hearing officer has a professional responsibility to hear and decide cases assigned to them, including difficult, time consuming, controversial, or high profile matters, and adjudicate all assigned cases unless there are clear grounds under this code or other applicable standards or law requiring disqualification.

B. A hearing officer shall recuse himself or herself in any proceeding in which the hearing officer's impartiality might reasonably be questioned, including:

(1) The hearing officer has a personal preference for, or bias or prejudice against a party or a party's lawyer, or has direct personal knowledge of facts that are in dispute in the proceeding.

(2) The hearing officer knows that the hearing officer, the hearing officer's spouse or domestic partner, or person within the third degree of relationship to either of them, or the spouse or domestic partner of such a person, or a member of the hearing officer's staff is:

(a) a party to the proceeding, or an officer, director, general partner, managing member, or trustee of a party;

(b) acting as a lawyer in the proceeding;

(c) a person has more than a de minimis interest that could substantially affected by the proceeding; or

(d) likely to be a material witness in the proceeding.

(3) The hearing officer knows that he or she, individually or as fiduciary, or the hearing officer's spouse, domestic partner, parent, or child, or any other person residing in the hearing officer's household, has more than a de minimis economic interest in the subject matter in controversy or is a party to the proceeding. Because tax controversies can involve companies and business with a substantial public consumer, retail, or general services presence in commerce, the mere fact that the assigned hearing officer, or their immediate family residing in their household, may be an occasional customer of a company or consumer of a company's products is not necessarily grounds for recusal unless the hearing officer has more than a de minimis economic interest beyond being an average consumer, shopper, or user of the goods and services of the company or the circumstances are sufficient to raise reasonable questions about the hearing officer's impartiality.

C. In consultation with the chief hearing officer about the reasons and necessity for recusal, a hearing officer may recuse himself or herself from the case through notice of recusal, or through the chief hearing officer's issuance of a notice of reassignment, without further explanation to the parties in the proceeding about the basis of the recusal. The recused hearing officer shall play no further role in the proceeding and reasonable steps should be taken to exclude the recused hearing officer from any further contact, review, or substantive discussions about the proceeding. A hearing officer's own decision to recuse himself or herself from a proceeding should not be construed as an admission of a conflict of interest, misconduct, impropriety, violation of this code or other relevant ethical or professional code, or as an admission that the hearing officer cannot be impartial in a particular matter.

D. A hearing officer may disclose on the record the basis of the hearing officer's prospective recusal and may ask the parties and their lawyers to consider whether to waive the potential issue necessitating the recusal. If, following this disclosure, the parties and lawyers agree for the record that the hearing officer should not be recused, the hearing officer may continue to participate in the matter.

E. The rule of necessity may require a hearing officer to proceed in a case where they otherwise might wish to recuse themselves if, after reasonable efforts to secure a continuance or reassignment of the matter to another hearing officer, there are no other competent hearing officers available to timely hear the matter before expiration of a mandatory jurisdictional deadline. If the hearing officer is relying on the rule of necessity to proceed, that determination must be disclosed on the record.

N.M. Admin. Code § 22.600.2.21

Adopted by New Mexico Register, Volume XXIX, Issue 02, January 30, 2018, eff. 2/1/2018