Procedural fairness requires that regulators give meaningful reasons explaining their decisions. Judicial scrutiny of regulatory decisions focuses on those reasons to ascertain whether the decision is justifiable, transparent, and intelligible. Writing reasons, however, is an art that requires skill—especially in the regulatory context. This course examines the process for writing regulatory reasons and, through practical assignments, helps learners develop relevant skills.

Scenarios will be taken from the complaints and discipline contexts, with some discussion of the registration context as well. The skills developed will be transferrable to other contexts (e.g., quality assurance and administrative suspensions).

This course will include weekly assignments and discussions with a cohort, but there will not be a live instructor. Course credit will be awarded on a Complete vs. Incomplete basis.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, the learners should be able to:

1. Develop a process for deliberations and decision making that fosters the writing of defensible reasons.
2. Apply the IDEEA principle to craft reasons that correctly identify the Issues, set out clear decisions, provide explanations for decisions, give examples to illustrate the explanations, and address the arguments that will be made by the losing sides.
3. Recognize gaps in reasons that courts will scrutinize and successfully address those gaps.

Course Information

This course will require approximately two to three hours each week, though it may vary from week to week and depending on your work pace. Weeks 4 and 5 may be particularly demanding. 

• Dates: April 13th - June 5th, 2026
• Cost: $50 | Free for Members
• Pathway: Public Policy & Legislation
• Contact Hours:  24.0