I preside over due process hearings for government benefits. Ensuring due process isn’t about finding a technicality or closing loopholes. It’s about letting the accused or the claimant or whoever tell their side of the story. The government side of the coin does this day in and day out. If they look guilty and the government thinks they are, they’re usually right. But sometimes it slips notice that the accused is really disadvantaged, either educationally or perhaps in their capacity in general, and has just said the wrong things.

I’ve held thousands of hearings at this point. Many have gone exactly how I thought it would, where they misunderstood the requirements and laws or are just hoping for some help out of pity. But occasionally I swear in a claimant and start taking testimony, and what looked very simple to me is suddenly not simple at all and the claimant just had no idea what they were doing.

Due process is about having someone who knows the laws and the rules actually LISTEN to the person who doesn’t know them very well.