Arkansas Department of Human Services, Appellant v. Bradley Ledgerwood, Louella Jones, Peggy Sanders, Marcus Strope…

Summary

The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed a temporary restraining order preventing the Department of Human Services from reassessing the appellees under the RUGs methodology or reducing their attendant-care hours. The court held that the appellees showed irreparable harm and a reasonable probability of success on their claim that DHS failed to provide adequate notice of the methodology change under the Administrative Procedure Act. The court also held that the claims were justiciable and that exhaustion of administrative remedies was unnecessary because pursuing those remedies would be futile and could cause irreparable injury.