Opinion ID: 544933
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Newly Adopted Procedures

Text: 23 In December 1987, Batterton attached a copy of the proposed procedures to the letter he sent to the vendors and stated that each licensee was entitled to a full evidentiary hearing and arbitration in accordance with the Act. The proposed regulations were in accordance with the Act's requirements and had already been approved by the Maryland State Board of Education for publication in the Maryland Register. The Committee of Blind Vendors, a representative group, was involved in the development of these new regulations. The State asserts, and the vendors do not dispute, that the vendors were well aware not only of the new procedures but also that the procedures were approved for publication. 24 The State argues that the proposed administrative procedures were adequate because they were actually made available to the vendors prior to their filing of their suit, with notice that they were soon to be formally adopted, and they were formally adopted shortly after the suit was filed. The vendors argue that the adequacy of the remedy should be measured at the time when the suit was filed; and at the time the vendors filed suit the procedures had not been formally adopted by the State or approved by the Secretary. Hence, they contend, exhaustion of administrative remedies should not have been required when the existing remedies were inadequate. 25 But this is not a case where the vendors, at the time they filed suit, were unaware of the impending formal approval of the proffered procedures. Neither is this a case where the technical inadequacy of the remedial procedures persisted throughout the pendency of the suit. In either situation, the vendors would present a more compelling argument. 26 The procedures that were offered to the vendors prior to their institution of suit were substantively adequate yet formally inadequate, and the vendors knew, when they instituted suit, about the impending formal adequacy of the procedures. Because the change making exhaustion a prerequisite occurred so soon, with advance notice to the vendors, requiring exhaustion leads to no undue prejudice. See Fillinger, 587 F.2d at 338. Furthermore, in such a situation, the policy concerns of the exhaustion doctrine are still advanced by requiring exhaustion. 27 Requiring litigants to exhaust their administrative remedies advances, at least, four policy concerns: (1) prevention of premature interruption of the administrative system required for the development of agency expertise and process; (2) preservation of agency autonomy in administering the scheme by providing an opportunity for the agency to correct its own errors; (3) promotion of effective judicial review with a more developed record; (4) promotion of judicial efficiency by avoiding an unnecessary decision. See Randolph-Sheppard Vendors, 795 F.2d at 104-05; K. Davis, 4 Administrative Law Treatise Sec. 26.1, at 415 (1983). 28 The fact that the procedures were not formally adopted does not undermine the promotion of those policies. Giving the DVR a chance to resolve the dispute provides an opportunity for it to correct any improper set-aside demand that might have occurred and to consider its regulatory scheme against the backdrop of federal requirements. Further, should the state agency or the Secretary's arbitration panel agree with the vendors, an unnecessary decision in the federal courts would be avoided. 29 The vendors do point to a valid policy concern that the law should not encourage agencies to delay the promulgation of required procedures until suits are actually filed. But that concern is not implicated in this case--the State here developed, announced, and made available the proposed procedures before the vendors instituted the suit. 30