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REA or Claim? Substance Over Form

Client Alert | 1 min read | 07.31.19

On July 17, 2019, the Federal Circuit addressed when a request for equitable adjustment (REA) constitutes a claim for purposes of CDA jurisdiction. The contractor, Hejran Hejrat Co. (HHL), submitted to the contracting officer (CO) a document entitled “Request for Equitable Adjustment,” with a sworn statement by a director of the company, requesting compensation and that the submission be “treated as a[n] REA.” The CO denied the request through a “Government’s final determination.” The ASBCA held that it lacked jurisdiction because the self-described REA was not a “claim.” The Federal Circuit reversed, finding that “there was a request for a final decision by a [CO] and a final decision by the [CO].” The Court rejected the Government’s arguments, focusing on the substance-over-form analysis: (1) a claim does not need “magic words,” so an REA can be a claim if it satisfies all of the claim requirements, and (2) even though REA did not request a CO’s final decision, the submission was sworn and requested the CO to “provide specific amounts of compensation for each alleged ground.” Thus, the Court held that the REA had the necessary formality to constitute a claim. Contractors must remain vigilant regarding the collateral consequences of these jurisdictional decisions, such as when the contractor’s 90-day appeal deadline begins to run for appealing the CO’s denial of the “REA” (claim) to the Board (or 1-year to COFC). 

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Client Alert | 8 min read | 06.30.25

AI Companies Prevail in Path-Breaking Decisions on Fair Use

Last week, artificial intelligence companies won two significant copyright infringement lawsuits brought by copyright holders, marking an important milestone in the development of the law around AI. These decisions – Bartz v. Anthropic and Kadrey v. Meta (decided on June 23 and 25, 2025, respectively), along with a February 2025 decision in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence – suggest that AI companies have plausible defenses to the intellectual property claims that have dogged them since generative AI technologies became widely available several years ago. Whether AI companies can, in all cases, successfully assert that their use of copyrighted content is “fair” will depend on their circumstances and further development of the law by the courts and Congress....