Another advantage is that agency procedural rules will automatically update to incorporate future changes in the TRCP as such may occur. Mediation is now being widely used in the state district courts. Several state agencies are experimenting with mediation and the administrative law section of the bar is encouraging other state agencies to experiment with it. Several of the adopted sections differ from the TRCP by design. However, the section still requires the agency to make formal service on unlicensed parties who violate the law by acting without a license or permit since there is no case law excusing formal service of initial pleadings on such parties.
Pleading is only one of many ways of providing opportunity to prepare.
Deficiencies in a pleading may be cured by informal communication, by formal amendment, by pre-hearing conferences, or by ample continuances at the hearing. The question for a reviewing court is not the adequacy of the original notice or pleading but rather the fairness of the whole procedure. Finally, with regard to 9.37, the new sanctions section, a continuing debate exists in both state and federal case law, law review articles, treatises, and other scholarly materials regarding what sanctions an administrative law judge can impose for violations of agency subpoenas, discovery orders, and other procedural orders and rulings. Some authorities opine that the only method of enforcement is by bringing a separate law suit in state district court for a court order directing compliance with the agency order, a time consuming exercise that would disrupt and delay administrative proceedings. New 9.37 is modeled after the authority of the State Office of Administrative Hearings in Government Code, 2003.0421.