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The National Appeals Division reports directly to the Secretary of Agriculture and is independent of other parts of USDA. Its sole mission is to provide fair and timely hearings and appeals to USDA program participants.

Any person who receives an adverse program decision from USDA's Farm Service Agency, Risk Management Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, or the three USDA Rural Development agencies may file an appeal with NAD.

NAD employs a two-stage appeal process. A participant has a right to a hearing in his state of residence before a NAD hearing officer. Thereafter, either the appellant or the agency may ask the NAD Director to reverse the hearing officer's determination.

May 2009 – The National Appeals Division has begun publishing appealability rulings on this website.  By law, a person may ask the NAD Director whether an adverse decision can be appealed to NAD when the issuing agency says it cannot; the Director's letter decision is administratively final. These letters are now also published on the NAD website in the same place that you can find other NAD decisions. http://www.nad.usda.gov/public_search.html. On that web page you can click for recent determinations, which will include appealabilities issued in the last seven days; or you can select Appealability Determination from the drop-down list provided. You may also click here for a report that shows how often people who ask for appealability rulings are successful.

October 2008 – The National Appeals Division has revised the NAD Guide. The guide sets forth NAD's policies and procedures for activities from appealability reviews through hearings and reconsiderations to Equal Access to Justice Act (EAJA) reviews. It outlines policies and procedures for employee conduct, managing the hearing process, preparing determinations, and ensuring the quality and consistency of correspondence and determinations. It is available to the public by clicking here.

September 2008 – Director Klurfeld and staff member Steven Placek have recently published an article in a peer-reviewed legal writing journal, the Journal of the Association of Legal Writing Directors. According to the Association’s web site, the Journal’s fall 2008 edition “will publish articles about the ‘best practices’ of legal writing in contexts other than the traditional litigation setting. Although much valuable legal writing scholarship has focused on the memoranda and briefs that are produced in connection with lawsuits, many lawyers are engaged in other kinds of writing: they draft transactional documents, legislation, rules, and regulations; they write formal and informal opinions and correspondence; they produce essays and articles for legal scholars and practicing lawyers.”

The Association's web site is http://www.alwd.org/, and you can find the article at http://www.alwd.org/JALWD/CurrentIssues/2008/KlurfeldPlacek_1.html This article went through a very thorough process of scholarly peer-review panels and editing, and it is our hope that its final publication validates some of the writing program initiatives NAD have taken and continues to implement.

June 2008 – On June 4, 2008, Secretary Edward T. Schafer reappointed Roger Klurfeld to a second six-year term as Director of the National Appeals Division, effective June 16, 2008.  In his reappointment letter, Secretary Schafer said, “The Director's position is an extremely important one, and I am convinced that the Division's record of independent and effective adjudication will continue under your direction.”

In reporting his reappointment to NAD employees, Mr. Klurfeld noted that the reputation recognized by the Secretary had been achieved through the efforts of all NAD employees.

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Los informes Nacionales de la División de Atracciones directamente al Secretario de la Agricultura y es independiente de otras partes de USDA. Su única misión es de proporcionar justo y audiciones y atracciones oportunas a participantes de programa de USDA.

Las personas que reciban decisiones adversas de un programa por parte de la Agencia de Servicios Agrícolas, de la Agencia de Manejo de Riesgos, del Servicio de Conservación de los Recursos Naturales o de las tres agencias de Desarrollo Rural del USDA, podrán presentar una apelación ante la NAD.

La NAD utiliza un proceso de apelación en dos etapas. Los participantes tienen derecho a una audiencia en el estado en que residen ante un funcionario de audiencias de la NAD. A partir de entonces, el apelante o la agencia puede solicitar al Director de la NAD que revoque la decisión del funcionario de audiencias.

Presentación y solicitud de apelaciones.

Last Modified: 05/11/2009