Pre-Hearing

Once your Notice of Appeal has been filed with the ADFG Office, your materials will be reviewed to determine if they are complete. If the appeal package is determined to be complete, it will be forwarded to your respective Division for their response.  

PLEASE NOTE:  The ADFG Office cannot provide you with advice on the merits of your case or legal advice regarding your appeal.

However, if your appeal package is not complete (e.g. missing supporting documents, missing your requested remedy, etc.) the ADFG Office may notify you about missing documents or information that you will be required to submit to the Office to complete your appeal package.

You must submit all materials by the 90th calendar day. Therefore, you are advised to submit your appeal before the 90th day in case you realize that you have forgotten certain material or evidence. Here is the Appeal Calculator to determine your deadline.

If you do not forward all of your materials to the ADFG Office by the deadline, you might not be permitted to submit them at a later date, or your file may be closed if it is determined that it is not complete. 

There are circumstances when the ADFG Office may close your file without a hearing.  The ADFG Office will deem an appeal abandoned and therefore closed, for one or more of the following reasons:

1. You fail to file your appeal with all required documentation and/or within the required timelines.
2. You do not make yourself available and/or are unresponsive to communications or requests, and you do not provide valid reasons and/or appropriate documentation to explain your unavailability/unresponsiveness.
3. You do not make yourself available to have your appeal heard by the second available hearing month offered to you, and do not provide valid reasons and/or documentation explaining why you need the hearing deferred.

Please see section: When Will My Hearing be Scheduled?

The Division has 60 calendar days to provide a Response to your appeal. The specific deadline is set out in the ADFG Office’s letter to the Division. You will receive a copy of the letter requesting a Response that is sent to the Division.

The Division provides its Response directly to the ADFG Office. The Division’s Response consists of one electronic file in PDF format of all its materials, including any documents that it filed before the previous appeals committee whose decision you are appealing.

The ADFG Office then forwards a copy of the Division's Response to you, along with a letter from the ADFG Office providing you with a two-week time period in which to provide a Reply to the Division. A specific deadline will be given to you in that letter to provide your Reply, should you choose to write one.

A Reply is an opportunity for you to respond only to new information and/or materials that the Division has put forward that were not already addressed in your original appeal material. Your Reply should be brief, should you decide to submit one. Replies are not mandatory, and you can choose not to submit one as part of your appeal.

If you do choose to submit a Reply, please submit one electronic file, including attachments, in PDF format containing bookmarks with corresponding titles, a table of contents, and page numbers using the bates numbering tool in Adobe Acrobat to the ADFG Office. You will be given two weeks to submit your Reply, and the deadline will be provided to you by the ADFG Office.  

Panel members will get a copy of all of the materials that you and the Division have submitted in relation to your appeal.  This will include your Appeal Package and supporting documentation, the Division's Response, and your Reply (if any). 

The ADFG Office generally forwards these materials to your Academic Appeals Committee members three to four weeks in advance of the scheduled hearing, so that they have time to read all of the materials submitted by both parties.  You should therefore assume that the panel members have read all of the materials prior to your hearing.

Normally, once the documents have been submitted to the panel, no further documents may be submitted to the ADFG Office.

Hearings are held three times a year during the months of October, February and June. 

The ADFG Office will set your Academic Appeal hearing for the first available hearing date based on the expected submission date of all of the materials from you and the Division.  For example, if you file your appeal at the end of June, the Division will have 60 days to file its Response.  This submission will likely occur at the end of August.  You will then have two (2) weeks to submit a Reply, which will give you until mid-September.  The materials are then distributed to your panel at least two (2) to three (3) weeks in advance of your hearing.  Therefore the October hearing month is when your matter will be heard.  Students are contacted well in advance of the potential hearing dates to determine their availability. You are expected to be available to attend your hearing.

If you are unable to attend your hearing during the scheduled hearing weeks, a formal written request will have to be made to the Senior Chair, via email to the ADFG Office.

If you need a disability-related accommodation to participate in the academic appeal process, please review and follow the procedure set out in the Protocol for Requesting Accommodation for Disabilities in the Academic Appeal Process.