(a) An administrative law judge must be admitted to practice law in this state and must have been admitted to practice in this state for at least two years before being employed or retained with the office. The chief administrative law judge shall establish additional qualifications for administrative law judges employed or retained by the office and for those administrative law judges that may be assigned to particular types of cases. An administrative law judge is in the partially exempt service. Notwithstanding AS 39.25.120(b), full-time administrative law judges employed by the office are subject to the personnel rules adopted under AS 39.25.150(7), (15), and (16).

(b) An administrative law judge employed or retained by the office may, in conducting an administrative hearing for an agency, exercise the powers authorized by law for exercise by that agency in the performance of its duties in connection with the hearing. An administrative law judge may

(1) engage in alternative dispute resolution under regulations adopted by the chief administrative law judge that is in addition to any alternate dispute resolution procedure used by an agency before the case is referred to the office;

(2) order a party, a party's attorney, or another authorized representative of a party to pay reasonable expenses, including attorney fees, incurred by another party as a result of actions done in bad faith or as a result of tactics used frivolously or solely intended to cause unnecessary delay;

(3) perform other necessary and appropriate acts in the performance of official duties.

(c) An administrative law judge employed by the office must devote full time to the duties of the office unless appointed to a position that is less than full-time. An administrative law judge employed by the office may not perform duties inconsistent with the duties and responsibilities of an administrative law judge.

(d) The office may enter into a contract with an individual who meets the qualifications established in (a) of this section to serve as an administrative law judge in a particular administrative hearing or in several hearings of the same type. The individual is subject to AS 39.52 (Alaska Executive Branch Ethics Act). Notwithstanding AS 36.30.015(d), the office may contract for or hire an administrative law judge without notifying or securing the approval of the Department of Law.