Most of the work of the agencies is done through informal procedures. As long as the regulatory body follows standard transparent norms and procedures, informal action or decision suffices.
For instance, an applicant for any permit or license need not go through the ordeal of a full fledged trial in order to be held eligible or qualified by the concerned authority.
Similarly the Internal Revenue Service processes most tax returns without scrutiny assessment or formal hearing. Further, Federal Communications Commission allows or disallows most transmitter applications without any formal action. Moreover, the Social Security Administration mostly decides the fate of over four million benefit claims annually summarily without any hearing.
Only in a small number of cases these administrative bodies are required to hold hearings or detailed enquiries or trials or are called upon to meet challenges to their decisions.
If any body is aggrieved with such informal decision, he can invoke formal procedures for redress of his legitimate grievances which might involve hearing or adjudication.
In case dissatisfaction persists with the agency decision rendered on formal hearing or adjudication, the concerned person can move the court for overruling or modifying the same.
Formal agency action comprises the rule making and adjudicatory function. In either case before a rule is finalized or an order is passed, the agency gives notice to the affected persons and hears their objections and views for consideration.
Rule making is the agency’s laying down of its policies which provide guidelines for its future actions in the discharge of its public functions or duties.
In adjudication the agency is called upon to decide if any of its past action in question conforms to its rules and take appropriate remedial measures in case of irregularity.
