OAR 808-009-0315: Hearing Request and Answers; Consequences of Failure to Answer

(1) A hearing request and answer must be made in writing to the board by the party or the party’s attorney within 60 days of the board’s issuance of a notice of license denial and within 21 days of the board’s issuance of any other notice. (2) Failure to raise an affirmative defense in the answer shall be considered a waiver of such defense. New matters alleged in the answer (affirmative defenses) shall be presumed denied by the Board. (3) Evidence at a hearing shall not be taken on any issue not raised in the notice and answer. (4) The party or party’s attorney may amend the response and answer, but no later than 10 days before the scheduled contested case hearing. (5) For certain complex cases, the hearing request and answer must include specific elements. The types of cases that for which a special hearing request and answer are required are: (a) Unlicensed performance of landscaping work as a landscape construction professional or operating as a landscape contracting business; (b) Unlicensed advertisement or representation of a landscape contracting business or landscape construction professional; (c) Violations of failure to comply with ORS 671.510 to 671.760 and/or OAR chapter 808. (6) The specific elements required when a hearing request and answer are made for a type of case listed in subsection (2) are: (a) An answer must include an admission or denial of each factual matter alleged in the notice; (b) An answer must include a short and plain explanation of each denial; (c) Factual matters alleged in the board’s proposed order and not denied in the answer shall be presumed admitted.