The Securities and Exchange Commission has quietly pulled back on its use of in-house judges, a practice that had brought upon it criticism and legal challenges, the Wall Street Journal reported today. SEC leaders defend the fairness of using agency administrative law judges even for serious, contested cases, in accordance with the powers the agency gained through the 2010 Dodd-Frank financial law. A review of 160 cases affecting more than 500 defendants shows that in the three months through September, the SEC sent just 11 percent—four of 36—of its contested cases to its administrative law judges. That was down from 40 percent in the like period of 2014. For the full fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the SEC used its internal tribunal for 28 percent of its contested cases, compared with 43 percent for the previous 12 months, according to the analysis and SEC data, both of which exclude settled and routine cases.
