It has been found that the correction of lists, a very vital piece of tech, has been a source of confusion in the field as it apparently has never been written up in an issue. It really is simple if you know your Laws of L & N.

The correct procedure for verifying/correcting past L & Ns is to check the items as to whether or not they are correct. Then do an L4BRA on each list where the item is found to be incorrect. You would have to orient the pc to the listing question and the item. You do not direct the question to see if it read. And don’t just do an L4BRA and then not find the right item for the pc as part of the handling (unless the question proves to be uncharged or some such).

One nulls a list when he doesn’t get a BD F/N item on listing. The Laws of L & N strictly apply. An L4BRA would be used if the action bogs with still no item found. One would also null lists the pc made where no item had been found such as a 2WC which turned into a listing action with the pc giving off items or a list the pc somehow made while not on a meter. In these cases there is no item to verify with the pc as correct. Just cull the items into a list, work out with the pc what the question was if it’s not already noted, and null the list.

Sometimes you just don’t have the list and can’t get it or it’s an old Why Finding or PTS interview for which there are no worksheets. In this case you get from the pc what the question was and then get him to give you the items that were already on the list as the item probably was already on the list and you don’t want the pc to get into newly listing the question in PT and then getting into an overlisting situation. Just get him to give you the items he had already put on the list and more often than not you will get a BD F/N item. If you don’t get the item that way then you can extend the list.

Watch it on these as every random stray thought a person has about “why this or that” does not mean it’s a self-list. But do look for it on a person who is manifesting the horrendous BPC an out list can generate, who is introspected or has been trying to figure out who is doing him in after just having seen the Ethics Officer. Just don’t get into trying to make a list out of some non- standard listing question that won’t give you an item. And actually the usual reason for self-listing is a prior wrong L & N item or an item not found. People will self-list to try to find the right item. So find and correct the earlier out list.

When you are going along correcting lists and suddenly you get a big pc blow-up and it is not resolving on the list you are correcting you had better quickly realize that you probably are not correcting the list that is out and you’d better find out which list it is. There is usually an earlier out list to be found, if the list you are correcting does not resolve the upset.

When you start getting key lists such as Grades III and IV not reading and no items found it’s time for that auditor to get a thorough overhaul on his metering, eyesight and to get off all his MUs on L & N. You also could be setting the pc up for a self-listing situation as he has been given the listing question but no item has been found. So be very sure the question did not read even with Suppress and Inval and TRs were in before getting off a key L & N process.

The prepared list L4BRA corrects L & N lists. It can be run on old lists, current lists, general listing. When a pc is ill after a listing and nulling session or up to 3 days after, always suspect that a listing action done on the pc had an error in it and get those lists corrected.

Sometimes it is obvious what the error was per the Laws of Listing and Nulling. For example there could be two reading items left on the list in which case you would know to extend the list as it has been underlisted. If this didn’t go, then an L4BRA would be done on the list.

You handle reading questions on the L4BRA by the directions under the question that read. You don’t just 2WC these questions. For example say question 4 read on the L4BRA, “Is a list incomplete? SF.” You then ask the pc, “What list is incomplete?” Locate it and get it completed to a BD F/N item. You don’t just 2WC “incomplete lists” to an F/N and leave it at that.

By the way the L4BRA is missing a line which is “Was it the first item on the list?” This is being added as it’s quite common that it is the first item and is most often missed.

An out list can create more concentrated hell with a pc than any other single auditing error.

So it’s imperative that listing errors get properly corrected.

The best thing to do is to have the Laws of Listing and Nulling drilled line by line and down cold and just do it right in the first place. Then you will also see at once where old lists violated these laws and you will not be yourself doing lists that have to be corrected later.