[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 14, Volume 4]
[Revised as of January 1, 2003]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 14CFR302.32]

[Page 297-298]
 
                     TITLE 14--AERONAUTICS AND SPACE
 
   CHAPTER II--OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION 
                         (AVIATION PROCEEDINGS)
 
PART 302--RULES OF PRACTICE IN PROCEEDINGS--Table of Contents
 
                Subpart A--Rules of General Applicability
 
Sec. 302.32  Petitions for discretionary review of initial or recommended decisions; review proceedings.

    (a) Petitions for discretionary review. (1) Review by the DOT 
decisionmaker pursuant to this section is not a matter of right but is 
at the sole discretion of the DOT decisionmaker. Any party may file and 
serve a petition for discretionary review by the DOT decisionmaker of an 
initial decision or recommended decision within twenty-one (21) days 
after service thereof, unless the DOT decisionmaker sets a different 
period for filing.
    (2) Petitions for discretionary review shall be filed only upon one 
or more of the following grounds:
    (i) A finding of a material fact is erroneous;
    (ii) A necessary legal conclusion is without governing precedent or 
is a departure from or contrary to law, the Department's rules, or 
precedent;
    (iii) A substantial and important question of law, policy or 
discretion is involved; or

[[Page 298]]

    (iv) A prejudicial procedural error has occurred.
    (3) Each issue shall be separately numbered and plainly and 
concisely stated. Petitioners shall not restate the same point in 
repetitive discussions of an issue. Each issue shall be supported by 
detailed citations of the record when objections are based on the 
record, and by statutes, regulations or principal authorities relied 
upon. Any matters of fact or law not argued before the administrative 
law judge, but that the petitioner proposes to argue on brief to the DOT 
decisionmaker, shall be stated.
    (4) Petitions for discretionary review shall be self-contained and 
shall not incorporate by reference any part of another document. Except 
by permission of the DOT decisionmaker, petitions shall not exceed 
twenty (20) pages including appendices and other papers physically 
attached to the petition.
    (5) Requests for oral argument on petitions for discretionary review 
will not be entertained by the DOT decisionmaker.
    (b) Answers. Within fifteen (15) days after service of a petition 
for discretionary review, any party may file and serve an answer of not 
more than fifteen (15) pages in support of or in opposition to the 
petition. If any party desires to answer more than one petition for 
discretionary review in the same proceeding, he or she shall do so in a 
single document of not more than twenty (20) pages.
    (c) Orders declining review. The DOT decisionmaker's order declining 
to exercise the discretionary right of review will specify the date upon 
which the administrative law judge's decision shall become effective as 
the final decision of the Department. A petition for reconsideration of 
a Department order declining review will be entertained only when the 
order exercises, in part, the DOT decisionmaker's discretionary right of 
review, and such petition shall be limited to the single question of 
whether any issue designated for review and any issue not so designated 
are so inseparably interrelated that the former cannot be reviewed 
independently or that the latter cannot be made effective before the 
final decision of the Department in the review proceeding.
    (d) Review proceedings. (1) The DOT decisionmaker may take review of 
an initial or recommended decision upon petition or on his or her own 
initiative or both. The DOT decisionmaker will issue a final order upon 
such review without further proceedings on any or all the issues where 
he or she finds that matters raised do not warrant further proceedings.
    (2) Where the DOT decisionmaker desires further proceedings, he or 
she will issue an order for review that will:
    (i) Specify the issues to which review will be limited. Only those 
issues specified in the order shall be argued on brief to the DOT 
decisionmaker, pursuant to Sec. 302.35, and considered by the DOT 
decisionmaker;
    (ii) Specify the portions of the administrative law judge's 
decision, if any, that are to be stayed as well as the effective date of 
the remaining portions thereof; and
    (iii) Designate the parties to the review proceeding.