Section 300.980  Participants at Informal Investigative Hearings

a)         A party may be accompanied at an informal investigative hearing by his/her attorney or other representative.  The participation of the other representative in the informal hearing shall be limited to fact-finding and support functions. Other representatives shall not be permitted to engage in any conduct or function that constitutes or reasonably approximates the practice of law. Other representatives shall not: examine or cross-examine any party or witness; offer any documents or other exhibits into evidence; make evidentiary, procedural or other legal objections; cite, file or interpret case law, statutes, administrative rulings or other legal authority; make legal arguments or interpretations; or give legal advice or opinions to parties or witnesses. Other representatives must provide to the represented party for signature a written disclosure document that explicitly states that the representative is not an attorney and that the representative is not permitted to present legal arguments or otherwise engage in any function that reasonably approximates the practice of law as described in this subsection (a). The document shall be signed by both the representative and the represented party.

b)         The parties may bring witnesses to the hearing, and the Hearing Officer shall hear witnesses with information related to the claim. The Hearing Officer shall determine the order in which the witnesses are to be heard and shall limit testimony to that which is relevant, not cumulative in nature, not unduly repetitious and material to the claim.  In deciding whether to permit a witness to testify, the Hearing Officer may consider the relevance and materiality of the testimony.  The Hearing Officer may exclude witnesses from the hearing when they are not giving testimony.  The Hearing Officer shall conduct and control the proceedings.  No tape recordings, stenographic report or other verbatim record of the hearing shall be made. The Department will provide translation services for the proceedings as necessary.

(Source:  Amended at 35 Ill. Reg. 12933, effective July 20, 2011)