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13201 Volume III | Chapter 13 NOTE: County Directors/Supervisors and Workers must check alerts daily in order to know the correct dates of all appointments scheduled on the county’s calendar by Program Integrity. The county’s calendar can be accessed from the SEOO menu, function 5 (HFNO) and then select function 12 (Hearing Appointment Calendar). WHO MAY ATTEND The hearing is an orderly but informal proceeding much in the nature of a conference. The term informal refers to the fact that regular court procedures, such as swearing in, are not followed. However, at the discretion of the hearings officer, he may swear in all persons present for the purpose of holding the hearing. A ruling of the State Attorney General empowers State and County Department staff with the authority to administer oaths and affirmations in accordance with the state statute. The hearing will not be open to the public. Those who should attend the hearing are the individual, the hearings officer, and the county worker who has participated in the eligibility decision. If this worker is not available, the case supervisor or director who supervised the decision should be present. All other persons who attend will attend for the purpose of either representing the claimant, giving information on his behalf, or for the purpose of representing the county or state agency. All persons who attend the hearing will be asked to give information pertinent to the issues under consideration. GROUP HEARINGS A group hearing can be held for a number of claimants under the following circumstances: 1. The Department may consolidate the cases and conduct a single group hearing when the only issue involved is one of a single law or agency policy. 2. The claimants may request a group hearing when there is one issue of agency policy common to all of them. Each individual claimant in a group hearing must be permitted to present his own case and be represented by his own lawyer or to withdraw from the group hearing and have his appeal heard individually. HOLDING THE HEARING The responsibility for the conduct of hearings has been delegated to Administrative Hearings staff. The hearing will be held by an impartial hearing officer from that staff. The hearings officer will open the hearing with an explanation of the purpose, the manner in which it will be conducted, the availability of the hearing information, the confidential nature of information presented at the hearing, and the fraudulent provision of the assistance acts. He will follow this with the information that the final decisions as to eligibility or ineligibility will be