It was originally defined in a provision of the 1946 Administrative Procedure Act (APA), which instructs courts reviewing agency actions to invalidate any that they find to be "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law." Watson & Associates, LLC 5 USC 706 lawyers. The arbitrary-or-capricious test is a legal standard of review used by judges to assess the actions of administrative agencies. In U.S this is one of the basic standards for review of appeals. In this article we discuss Arbitrary and Capricious decision making in addition to the difference between the two. February 3, 2015 October 5, 2019 Mary Claire TSGLI Denials and Appeals. ALL STATES. Example: Paul and Myra, both in their mid-30s, are involved in a disputed custody case. Arbitrary and Capricious means doing something according to one’s will or caprice and therefore conveying a notion of a tendency to abuse the possession of power. There is, however, no set standard for what constitutes an arbitrary and capricious decision; what appears arbitrary to one judge may seem perfectly reasonable to another. Under the "arbitrary and capricious" standard, the finding of a lower court will not be disturbed unless it has no reasonable basis.

Arbitrary And Capricious Decision. As adjectives the difference between arbitrary and capricious is that arbitrary is (usually|of a decision) based on individual discretion or judgment; not based on any objective distinction, perhaps even made at random while capricious is impulsive and unpredictable; determined by chance, impulse, or whim. Help for government contractors to apply Arbitrary and capricious standard and definition under for challenging an agency action. Arbitrary is a synonym of capricious. In the field of Law, an Arbitrary decision is defined as a decision based on random choice or personal whim. What Is An Arbitrary And Capricious Decision?