Driftwood local reappointed to head of State Office of Administrative Hearings

Governor Greg Abbott has reappointed Kristofer Monson as the Chief Administrative Law Judge for the State Office of Administrative Hearings, an independent, neutral forum for disputes between Texas agencies, other governmental entities and private citizens.

Monson, a resident of Driftwood, has served as the Chief ALJ since April 2019. He previously served as Assistant Solicitor General in the Office of the Attorney General of Texas, where he spent 15 years working as an expert in Texas administrative practice and procedure. He is board certified in civil appellate law by the Texas Board of Legal Specialization and is a member of the State Bar of Texas, Fifth Circuit Bar, United States Supreme Court Bar and the Western District of Texas Bar.

In his continued role, Monson will continue to oversee the SOAH and its approximately 30,000 hearings per year.

“Basically, our office does due process hearings for everything decided in the [state’s] executive branch,” Monson explained. “We separate the fact-finding from the prosecution, so we can keep whatever Texas government body it is from being judge, jury and executioner.”

Through its seven field office locations, the SOAH hears cases for over 50 state agencies, including the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Texas Education Agency and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, according to its website. Hearings are divided into general hearings and driver’s license hearings, which are administrative driver's license suspension hearings.

“We’re here to serve and protect the rights of everyday Texans,” Monson said. “We make sure they have a fair shake when they have any sort of run-in with the government, and we make sure everything is done right and fairly.”

In his second term as Chief ALJ, Monson said he hopes to establish the SOAH as one of the best central hearing programs in the United States.

“We have just finished implementing a new document management system, and we revamped a lot of our existing software,” he said. “This not only helps Texans but also provides us with the launchpad to become an example for entities similar to us across the country.”

Asked how these updates would improve the SOAH, Monson responded: “I think we’re gonna have the ability to see things we haven’t before. We adopted an agency philosophy of “why not better?” — and that means looking out for ways we can do the best job we can for the people of Texas.”

Monson received a Bachelor of Arts from Wabash College and a Juris Doctor Degree from The University of Texas School of Law.

For more information about the role of the Chief ALJ and the SOAH, visit soah.texas. gov.