CASE PROCESSING PROCEDURES;PROCEDURES BEFORE THE BOARD – Weight Given to ALJ's Proposed Decision: Findings, Conclusions, Credibility Resolutions

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1107.00000 – CASE PROCESSING PROCEDURES;PROCEDURES BEFORE THE BOARD
1107.02000 – Weight Given to ALJ’s Proposed Decision: Findings, Conclusions, Credibility Resolutions

The Board itself, not the ALJ, is the ultimate finder of fact. Findings of fact of PERB administrative law judges, who are mere delegates of the Board itself, are entitled to that amount of deference which the Board, in its discretion, wishes to afford them. In accordance with this rule, the Board has determined that it will normally afford deference to administrative law judges’ findings of fact involving credibility determinations unless they are unsupported by the record as a whole. While the Board will afford deference to the hearing officer’s findings of fact which incorporate credibility determinations, the Board is required to consider the entire record, including the totality of testimony offered, and is free to draw its own and perhaps contrary inferences from the evidence presented.