How to appeal an ACAA decision

It is the claims adjudication and appeals procedure of Article 11 of Act 111-2020, the law governing ACAA. The Executive Director or their authorised representative investigates and resolves claims using the procedures they see fit, provided the parties’ rights are guaranteed; what Article 11 adds is what you can do when you are not satisfied with the outcome.

It applies to a claimant who is not satisfied with the determination of the Executive Director or their authorised representative on a claim before ACAA. At reconsideration and at the hearing you may appear on your own or represented by a lawyer; before the Junta you likewise have the right to appear on your own behalf or assisted by a lawyer.

• Filing each request within the thirty (30) calendar days the Act sets for that stage.Verified against the official source
• Counting the term from the date of the notification of the determination or from the postmark date, if you produce it, whichever is later.Verified against the official source

• The postmark of the envelope in which you were notified, if it helps you: the Act allows counting from that date when it is later than the notification’s.

1. 1

   Step 1: First rung: reconsideration

   If you are not satisfied with the determination of the Executive Director or their authorised representative, you may request reconsideration within thirty (30) calendar days of the date of the notification of the determination or of the postmark date, if you produce that postmark, whichever is later. At this stage the claimant may be represented by a lawyer, make arguments and submit the evidence they see fit. This is the stage to put all your evidence on the table, and the next step explains why.

2. 2

   Step 2: Second rung: the hearing, with a trap

   If you disagree with the reconsideration’s outcome, you may request, within another thirty (30) calendar days counted the same way, a public hearing before the Executive Director or an examiner they designate. And here is the detail that costs many people dearly: the claimant may not submit at that hearing evidence the Director did not have before them when making the determination, unless it is shown, to the Director’s satisfaction, that it was impossible to obtain earlier. Holding a document back "for the hearing" is not strategy: it is losing it.

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   Step 3: What happens at the hearing

   You may appear on your own or represented by a lawyer. A record of the proceedings and of everything testified is kept, but the testimony need not be transcribed unless a subsequent appeal is taken. The rules of evidence prevailing in a court of law are not binding in any proceeding before the Executive Director, their authorised representative or the Junta. If more than one claim concerns the same injured person and the evidence is the same or substantially so, a single record may be taken and that evidence is considered submitted as to the others, provided no claimant is harmed. Once the hearing is held, the Executive Director makes their findings and conclusions and gives each party a copy of the decision and of the findings that grounded it.

4. 4

   Step 4: Third rung: the Junta

   That decision is final unless an appeal is taken to the Junta. The appeal is perfected by filing a request with the Junta’s Secretary within thirty (30) calendar days of the notification of the Executive Director’s decision or of the postmark, whichever is later. The Executive Director has a certified copy of the case record and a transcript of the oral evidence sent up to the Junta, though the parties may stipulate that the record be limited to part of the file or of the transcript. The Junta decides on the record before it and any briefs the parties file, and may at its discretion grant hearings before deciding. It may uphold, modify or reverse the Executive Director’s decision, or remand the case with instructions, including an order to consider additional evidence.

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   Step 5: Fourth rung: the Court of Appeals

   The Junta’s decision is final, unless the claimant or the Executive Director seeks judicial review by filing a petition to that effect in the Court of Appeals, within thirty (30) calendar days of the notification by mail or in person to the parties and their respective lawyers of the Junta’s decision. Note the Executive Director may also seek review: the judicial route is not only yours.

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   Step 6: The terms are jurisdictional

   It is the article’s most important sentence and worth reading in full: all the terms established in this Article are jurisdictional in nature and failure to meet them deprives the Administration or the court of authority to hear the request filed. It is not a flexible deadline or a formality: once the term passes, neither ACAA nor the court can hear your request even if you are right. For the Administration’s purposes, the filing date of a request for reconsideration, hearing or appeal to the Junta is the date of receipt at the Administration when filed in person, or the postmark when sent by mail.

Reconsideration and the hearing request are filed with the Executive Director or their authorised representative; the appeal, with the Junta’s Secretary; judicial review, in the Court of Appeals. The Act publishes no forms, postal addresses or email addresses for these steps and we do not invent them here: confirm them at your ACAA regional office before the term runs.

• Letting the thirty days pass: the term is jurisdictional and nobody can hear you afterwards.
• Holding evidence back "for the hearing": at the hearing, evidence the Director did not have when deciding is not admitted, absent proven impossibility.
• Throwing away the envelope: the postmark may buy you days if it is later than the notification date.
• Believing the Executive Director’s decision is the end of the road: it is final only if you do not appeal to the Junta.
• Thinking a court’s rules of evidence govern these proceedings: the Act expressly says they are not binding.
• Assuming you need a lawyer: you may appear on your own behalf at every administrative stage.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Administración de Compensaciones por Accidentes de Automóviles (ACAA)

  ACAA

  docs.pr.gov

• Automobile Accident Compensation Administration

  acaa

  www.acaa.pr.gov