124 

14 CFR Ch. I (1–1–24 Edition) 

§ 17.33 

(b) Any party may request by mo-

tion, or the ODRA on its own initiative 
may recommend or direct, that a sum-
mary decision be issued with respect to 
a contract dispute, or any count or por-
tion thereof if there are no material 
facts in dispute and a party is entitled 
to a summary decision as a matter of 
law. 

(c) In connection with any potential 

dismissal of a contract dispute, or sum-
mary decision, the ODRA will consider 
any material facts in dispute in a light 
most favorable to the party against 
whom the dismissal or summary deci-
sion would be entered, and draw all fac-
tual inferences in favor of that party. 

(d) At any time, whether pursuant to 

a motion or on its own initiative and 
at its discretion, the ODRA may: 

(1) Dismiss or strike a count or por-

tion of a contract dispute or enter a 
partial summary decision; 

(2) Recommend to the Administrator 

that the entire contract dispute be dis-
missed or that a summary decision be 
entered; or 

(3) With a delegation from the Ad-

ministrator, dismiss the entire con-
tract dispute or enter a summary deci-
sion with respect to the entire contract 
dispute. 

(e) An order of dismissal of the entire 

contract dispute or summary decision 
with respect to the entire contract dis-
pute, issued either by the Adminis-
trator or by the ODRA, on the grounds 
set forth in this section, shall con-
stitute a final agency order. An ODRA 
order dismissing or striking a count or 
portion of a contract dispute or enter-
ing a partial summary judgment shall 
not constitute a final agency order, un-
less and until such ODRA order is in-
corporated or otherwise adopted in a 
final agency decision of the Adminis-
trator or the Administrator’s delegee 
regarding the remainder of the dispute. 

(f) Prior to recommending or enter-

ing either a dismissal or a summary de-
cision, either in whole or in part, the 
ODRA shall afford all parties against 
whom the dismissal or summary deci-
sion would be entered the opportunity 
to respond to a proposed dismissal or 
summary decision. 

§ 17.33

Adjudicative Process for con-

tract disputes. 

(a) The Adjudicative Process for con-

tract disputes will be commenced by 
the ODRA Director upon being notified 
by the ADR neutral or by any party 
that either— 

(1) The parties will not be attempting 

ADR; or 

(2) The parties have not settled all of 

the dispute issues via ADR, and it is 
unlikely that they can do so within the 
time period allotted and/or any reason-
able extension. 

(b) In cases initiated by a contractor 

against the FAA, within twenty (20) 
business days of the commencement of 
the Adjudicative Process or as sched-
uled by the ODRA, the Product Team 
shall prepare and submit to the ODRA, 
with a copy to the contractor, a chron-
ologically arranged and indexed sub-
stantive response, containing a legal 
and factual position regarding the dis-
pute and all documents relevant to the 
facts and issues in dispute. The con-
tractor will be entitled, at a specified 
time, to supplement the record with 
additional documents. 

(c) In cases initiated by the FAA 

against a contractor, within twenty 
(20) business days of the commence-
ment of the Adjudicative Process or as 
scheduled by the ODRA, the contractor 
shall prepare and submit to the ODRA, 
with a copy to the Product Team coun-
sel, a chronologically arranged and in-
dexed substantive response, containing 
a legal and factual position regarding 
the dispute and all documents relevant 
to the facts and issues in dispute. The 
Product Team will be entitled, at a 
specified time, to supplement the 
record with additional documents. 

(d) Unless timely objection is made, 

documents properly filed with the 
ODRA will be deemed admitted into 
the administrative record. Discovery 
requests and responses are not part of 
the record and will not be filed with 
the ODRA, except in connection with a 
motion or other permissible filing. Des-
ignated, relevant portions of such doc-
uments may be filed, with the permis-
sion of the ODRA. 

(e) The Director of the ODRA shall 

assign a DRO or a Special Master to 
conduct adjudicatory proceedings, de-
velop the administrative adjudication 

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Federal Aviation Administration, DOT 

§ 17.33 

record and prepare findings and rec-
ommendations for the review of the 
ODRA Director or the Director’s des-
ignee. 

(f) The DRO or Special Master may 

conduct a status conference(s) as nec-
essary and issue such orders or deci-
sions as are necessary to promote the 
efficient resolution of the contract dis-
pute. 

(g) At any such status conference, or 

as necessary during the Adjudicative 
Process, the DRO or Special Master 
will: 

(1) Determine the appropriate 

amount of discovery required; 

(2) Review the need for a protective 

order, and if one is needed, prepare a 
protective order pursuant to § 17.9; 

(3) Determine whether any issue can 

be stricken; and 

(4) Prepare necessary procedural or-

ders for the proceedings. 

(h) Unless otherwise provided by the 

DRO or Special Master, or by agree-
ment of the parties with the concur-
rence of the DRO or Special Master, re-
sponses to written discovery shall be 
due within thirty (30) business days 
from the date received. 

(i) At a time or at times determined 

by the DRO or Special Master, and in 
advance of the decision of the case, the 
parties shall make individual final sub-
missions to the ODRA and to the DRO 
or Special Master, which submissions 
shall include the following: 

(1) A statement of the issues; 
(2) A proposed statement of undis-

puted facts related to each issue to-
gether with citations to the adminis-
trative record or other supporting ma-
terials; 

(3) Separate statements of disputed 

facts related to each issue, with appro-
priate citations to documents in the 
Dispute File, to pages of transcripts of 
any hearing or deposition, or to any af-
fidavit or exhibit which a party may 
wish to submit with its statement; 

(4) Separate legal analyses in support 

of the parties’ respective positions on 
disputed issues. 

(j) Each party shall serve a copy of 

its final submission on the other party 
by means reasonably calculated so that 
the other party receives such submis-
sions on the same day it is received by 
the ODRA. 

(k) The DRO or Special Master may 

decide the contract dispute on the 
basis of the administrative record and 
the submissions referenced in this sec-
tion, or may, in the DRO or Special 
Master’s discretion, direct the parties 
to make additional presentations in 
writing. The DRO or Special Master 
may conduct hearings, and may limit 
the hearings to the testimony of spe-
cific witnesses and/or presentations re-
garding specific issues. The DRO or 
Special Master shall control the nature 
and conduct of all hearings, including 
the sequence and extent of any testi-
mony. Evidentiary hearings on the 
record shall be conducted by the 
ODRA: 

(1) Where the DRO or Special Master 

determines that there are complex fac-
tual issues in dispute that cannot ade-
quately or efficiently be developed 
solely by means of written presen-
tations and/or that resolution of the 
controversy will be dependent on his/ 
her assessment of the credibility of 
statements provided by individuals 
with first-hand knowledge of the facts; 
or 

(2) Upon request of any party to the 

contract dispute, unless the DRO or 
Special Master finds specifically that a 
hearing is unnecessary and that no 
party will be prejudiced by limiting the 
record in the adjudication to the par-
ties’ written submissions. All witnesses 
at any such hearing shall be subject to 
cross-examination by the opposing 
party and to questioning by the DRO or 
Special Master. 

(l) The DRO or Special Master shall 

prepare findings and recommendations, 
which will contain findings of fact, ap-
plication of the principles of the AMS 
and other law or authority applicable 
to the findings of fact, and a rec-
ommendation for a final FAA order. 

(m) The DRO or Special Master shall 

conduct a de novo review using the pre-
ponderance of the evidence standard, 
unless a different standard is pre-
scribed for a particular issue. Notwith-
standing the above, allegations that 
government officials acted with bias or 
in bad faith must be established by 
clear and convincing evidence. 

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14 CFR Ch. I (1–1–24 Edition) 

§ 17.35 

(n) The Director of the ODRA may 

review the status of any contract dis-
pute in the Adjudicative Process with 
the DRO or Special Master. 

(o) A DRO or Special Master shall 

submit findings and recommendations 
to the Director of the ODRA or the Di-
rector’s designee. The findings and rec-
ommendations will be released to the 
parties and to the public, upon 
issuance of the final FAA order in the 
case. Should an ODRA protective order 
be issued in connection with the con-
tract dispute, or should the matter in-
volve proprietary or competition-sen-
sitive information, a redacted version 
of the findings and recommendations 
omitting any protected information, 
shall be prepared wherever possible and 
released to the public, as soon as is 
practicable, along with a copy of the 
final FAA order. Only persons admitted 
by the ODRA under the protective 
order and Government personnel shall 
be provided copies of the unredacted 
findings and recommendations. 

(p) Attorneys’ fees of a qualified pre-

vailing contractor are allowable to the 
extent permitted by the EAJA, 5 U.S.C. 
504(a)(1). 

See 14 CFR part 14. 

(q) Other than communications re-

garding purely procedural matters or 
ADR, there shall be no substantive 

ex 

parte  communication between ODRA 
personnel and any principal or rep-
resentative of a party concerning a 
pending or potentially pending matter. 
A potential or serving ADR neutral 
may communicate on an ex parte basis 
to establish or conduct the ADR. 

Subpart D—Alternative Dispute 

Resolution 

§ 17.35

Use of alternative dispute reso-

lution. 

(a) By statutory mandate, it is the 

policy of the FAA to use voluntary 
ADR to the maximum extent prac-
ticable to resolve matters pending at 
the ODRA. The ODRA therefore uses 
voluntary ADR as its primary means of 
resolving all factual, legal, and proce-
dural controversies. 

(b) The parties are encouraged to 

make a good faith effort to explore 
ADR possibilities in all cases and to 
employ ADR in every appropriate case. 
The ODRA uses ADR techniques such 

as mediation, neutral evaluation, bind-
ing arbitration or variations of these 
techniques as agreed by the parties and 
approved by the ODRA. At the begin-
ning of each case, the ODRA assigns a 
DRO as a potential neutral to explore 
ADR options with the parties and to 
convene an ADR process. See § 17.35(b). 

(c) The ODRA Adjudicative Process 

will be used where the parties cannot 
achieve agreement on the use of ADR; 
where ADR has been employed but has 
not resolved all pending issues in dis-
pute; or where the ODRA concludes 
that ADR will not provide an expedi-
tious means of resolving a particular 
dispute. Even where the Adjudicative 
Process is to be used, the ODRA, with 
the parties’ consent, may employ infor-
mal ADR techniques concurrently with 
the adjudication. 

§ 17.37

Election of alternative dispute 

resolution process. 

(a) The ODRA will make its per-

sonnel available to serve as Neutrals in 
ADR proceedings and, upon request by 
the parties, will attempt to make 
qualified non-FAA personnel available 
to serve as Neutrals through neutral- 
sharing programs and other similar ar-
rangements. The parties may elect to 
employ a mutually acceptable com-
pensated neutral at their expense. 

(b) The parties using an ADR process 

to resolve a protest shall submit an ex-
ecuted ADR agreement containing the 
information outlined in paragraph (d) 
of this section to the ODRA pursuant 
to § 17.17(c). The ODRA may extend this 
time for good cause. 

(c) The parties using an ADR process 

to resolve a contract dispute shall sub-
mit an executed ADR agreement con-
taining the information outlined in 
paragraph (d) of this section to the 
ODRA pursuant to § 17.29. 

(d) The parties to a protest or con-

tract dispute who elect to use ADR 
must submit to the ODRA an ADR 
agreement setting forth: 

(1) The agreed ADR procedures to be 

used; and 

(2) The name of the neutral. If a com-

pensated neutral is to be used, the 
agreement must address how the cost 
of the neutral’s services will be reim-
bursed. 

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