New Hampshire Code of Administrative Rules
Lab - Commissioner, Department of Labor
Chapter Lab 200 - DEPARTMENT OF LABOR HEARINGS
Part Lab 208 - ETHICAL STANDARDS FOR PARTICIPANTS IN THE HEARINGS PROCESS
Section Lab 208.01 - Ethical Standards

(a) Hearing officers and board members shall avoid the appearance of impropriety in all activities. They shall conduct themselves in a manner which promotes public confidence in their integrity and impartiality and of the hearings process of the department in general;

(b) Hearing officers, board members, and legal counsel to the department shall:

(c) Hearing officers and board members shall disqualify themselves when their impartiality might be reasonably questioned. They shall not participate in a contested case where they have a personal bias or prejudice concerning a party or a party's representative, or personal knowledge of disputed evidentiary facts concerning the proceeding, or where they or a relative is a party to the proceeding or is known by them to have a substantial interest in the outcome of the proceeding;

(d) Hearing officers and board members shall avoid ex parte communications. They shall not permit private communications concerning a pending matter unless such communications are at the same time provided to all other persons interested in the matter.

(e) Hearing officers and board members shall not directly or indirectly solicit or accept any gift or gratuity from any person or party involved in any contested matter pending before them. Gifts or gratuities include but shall not be limited to meals, alcoholic beverages, hotel accommodations, travel expenses, flowers and the like, but shall not include plaques or other mementos of token value received for speaking engagements or meals received at functions in which the department has a specific part in the program. Gifts or gratuities received unsolicited shall be returned to the donor. Their receipt shall be reported to the commissioner in writing;

(f) A person who has been employed by the department as a hearing officer or legal counsel shall not thereafter appear in any matter before the department on behalf of any party in any matter where the hearing officer or legal counsel was involved in the matter while an employee of the department. A hearing officer or legal counsel shall not appear in any contested case before the department on behalf of any party until the expiration of one year following termination of employment with the department;

(g) No member of the board shall participate directly or indirectly as a representative or any party to a workers' compensation proceeding before a hearing officer at the department of labor, and

(h) A hearing officer, or board member, or any other participant in the hearing process who observes or otherwise becomes aware of a violation of these ethical standards by a hearing officer or by any other participant in the hearing process shall report such violation, in writing, to the commissioner.