121 

Federal Aviation Administration, DOT 

§ 17.33 

§ 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 

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. 

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