Technology and the Washington State Administrative Process—Some Preliminary Notes

This brief report summarizes information obtained by a preliminary survey in the spring of 2003 of what some Washington state agencies are doing with technology. The agencies surveyed included the Utilities and Transportation Commission and the Departments of Ecology, Revenue, Social and Health Services, and Labor and Industries. To keep the subject within bounds—and within the central focus of the Access to Justice Technology Bill of Rights project—the survey inquired into the use of technology in those parts of the administrative process that are similar to legal process generally—i.e., those components of the administrative process through which binding general principles are formulated (rulemaking) and those processes by which individual disputes are resolved (adjudication, licensing, etc.). The survey did not consider the many other uses of technology in internal agency management, records control, benefit administration, etc.