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Agency Liable For Negligent Estimate In LOE Contract

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 10.07.04

In Sanford Cohen & Assocs., Inc. (Sept. 8, 2004), the Interior BCA held the EPA liable for a negligently-prepared estimate included in a level-of-effort (LOE) contract when the EPA ordered significantly less than its estimated quantities for each performance period. Because the contractor reasonably relied on the EPA's original estimate in arriving at its offered prices, the board ordered an equitable adjustment and condemned both the "egregious" manner in which the EPA unilaterally modified the contract language to shirk liability for lesser orders and the EPA's "essential[ly] unfair[]" but routine practice of ordering substantially less than 90% of the specified LOEs in its contracts.

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Client Alert | 3 min read | 07.10.26

Federal Circuit Clarifies Application of Blue & Gold: Proposal Submission Deadline, Not Award, is the Operative Time for Filing

In Utech, Inc. v. United States, No. 24-1586 (Fed. Cir. June 24, 2026), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit clarified that in most cases, a pre-award protest must be filed before the proposal submission deadline to avoid the Blue & Gold waiver rule.  This decision, while nonprecedential, is in line with U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) precedent, which has long held that pre-award protests must be filed before the proposal submission deadline....