[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 5, Volume 3]
[Revised as of January 1, 2007]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 5CFR1201.31]

[Page 19-20]
 
                    TITLE 5--ADMINISTRATIVE PERSONNEL
 
               CHAPTER II--MERIT SYSTEMS PROTECTION BOARD
 
PART 1201_PRACTICES AND PROCEDURES--Table of Contents
 
                Subpart B_Procedures for Appellate Cases
 
Sec.  1201.31  Representatives.

    (a) Procedure. A party to an appeal may be represented in any matter 
related to the appeal. Parties may designate a representative, revoke 
such a designation, and change such a designation in a signed 
submission, submitted as a pleading.
    (b) A party may choose any representative as long as that person is 
willing and available to serve. The other party or parties may challenge 
the designation, however, on the ground that it involves a conflict of 
interest or a conflict of position. Any party who challenges the 
designation must do so by filing a motion with the judge within 15 days 
after the date of service of the notice of designation. The judge will 
rule on the motion before considering the merits of the appeal. These 
procedures apply equally to each designation of representative, 
regardless of whether the representative was the first one designated by 
a party or a subsequently designated representative. If a representative 
is disqualified, the judge will give the party whose representative was 
disqualified a reasonable time to obtain another one.
    (c) The judge, on his or her own motion, may disqualify a party's 
representative on the grounds described in paragraph (b) of this 
section.
    (d)(1) A judge may exclude a party, a representative, or other 
person from all or any portion of the proceeding before him or her for 
contumacious misconduct or conduct that is prejudicial to the 
administration of justice.
    (2) When a judge determines that a person should be excluded from 
participation in a proceeding, the judge shall inform the person of this 
determination through issuance of an order to show cause why he or she 
should not be excluded. The show cause order shall be delivered to the 
person by the most expeditious means of delivery available, including 
issuance of an oral order on

[[Page 20]]

the record where the determination to exclude the person is made during 
a hearing. The person must respond to the judge's show cause order 
within three days (excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and Federal holidays) 
of receipt of the order, unless the judge provides a different time 
limit, or forfeit the right to seek certification of a subsequent 
exclusion order as an interlocutory appeal to the Board under paragraph 
(d)(3) of this section.
    (3) When, after consideration of the person's response to the show 
cause order, or in the absence of a response to the show cause order, 
the judge determines that the person should be excluded from 
participation in the proceeding, the judge shall issue an order that 
documents the reasons for the exclusion. The person may obtain review of 
the judge's ruling by filing, within three days (excluding Saturdays, 
Sundays, and Federal holidays) of receipt of the ruling, a motion that 
the ruling be certified to the Board as an interlocutory appeal. The 
judge shall certify an interlocutory appeal to the Board within one day 
(excluding Saturdays, Sundays, and Federal holidays) of receipt of such 
a motion. Only the provisions of this paragraph apply to interlocutory 
appeals of rulings excluding a person from a proceeding; the provisions 
of Sec. Sec.  1201.91 through 1201.93 of this part shall not apply.
    (4) A proceeding will not be delayed because the judge excludes a 
person from the proceeding, except that:
    (i) Where the judge excludes a party's representative, the judge 
will give the party a reasonable time to obtain another representative; 
and
    (ii) Where the judge certifies an interlocutory appeal of an 
exclusion ruling to the Board, the judge or the Board may stay the 
proceeding sua sponte or on the motion of a party for a stay of the 
proceeding.
    (5) The Board, when considering a petition for review of a judge's 
initial decision under subpart C of this part, will not be bound by any 
decision of the judge to exclude a person from the proceeding below.

[54 FR 53504, Dec. 29, 1989, as amended at 62 FR 62689, Nov. 25, 1997; 
62 FR 66815, Dec. 22, 1997; 63 FR 35500, June 30, 1998; 65 FR 5409, Feb. 
4, 2000; 68 FR 59862, Oct. 20, 2003; 69 FR 57630, Sept. 27, 2004]