C Evidentiary Considerations

The Parties must provide all evidence to the Investigator(s) prior to completion of the Final Investigation Report. Evidence offered after that time will be evaluated by the Decision-maker for relevance. If deemed relevant, the Parties and Decision-maker must agree to admit it into the record. If the evidence is deemed not relevant, the Decision-maker may proceed with making Findings and a Final Determination absent the new evidence.

The new relevant evidence will be admitted to the record if:

All Parties and the Decision-maker assent to the new evidence being considered without remanding the matter back to the Investigator,
The evidence is not duplicative of evidence already in the record, and
The new evidence was either not reasonably available prior to the conclusion of the Final Investigation Report, or the failure to provide it in a timely manner was not the result of bad faith by the Parties, witnesses, or others.

If the above criteria are not met, but the evidence is deemed materially relevant and not duplicative, the Decision-maker may, at their discretion, engage in any of the following actions:

Provide the Parties with at least three (3) business days to review the relevant evidence
Remand the matter back to the Investigator for further investigation or analysis
Allow the Parties time to review and comment on the new evidence

If the evidence is deemed not relevant, the Decision-maker may proceed with making Findings and a Final Determination without allowing the new evidence.

Any evidence that is relevant and credible may be considered, including a Respondent’s prior disciplinary history as well as evidence indicating a pattern of misconduct, subject to the limitation in (D) below. The process should exclude irrelevant or immaterial evidence and may disregard evidence lacking in credibility or that is improperly prejudicial.