1. Home
  2. |Insights
  3. |Unfortunate Change To Settlement Fees And Costs Allowability Law

Unfortunate Change To Settlement Fees And Costs Allowability Law

Client Alert | less than 1 min read | 05.21.09

Reversing the ASBCA decision in Tecom, Inc., ASBCA Nos. 53884 et al., 07-2 BCA ¶ 33,674 (Sept. 21, 2007), the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit holds in Geren v. Tecom, Inc., No. 2008-1171 (May 19, 2009), that legal fees and costs incurred in connection with settling a private action for employment discrimination unrelated to fraud will be allowable only if the contractor can establish that the private plaintiff had very little likelihood of success on the merits. This ruling, which will be discussed next week at Crowell & Moring's OOPS conference, will greatly complicate the determination of allowable costs and place the responsible government contracting officer in the difficult position of second-guessing each settlement decision.

Insights

Client Alert | 5 min read | 09.03.26

DOT Final Rule Narrows Airline Delay and Cancellation Reporting Obligation Under FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) published a final rule amending 14 CFR Part 234 that fundamentally changes how airlines report the causes of flight delays and cancellations. Effective October 19, 2026, the rule implements Section 511(b) of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 by creating a new reporting category, the “Section 511(b) category,” for ten specific events that Congress determined are not attributable to airline control. The rule simultaneously narrows the existing "Air Carrier" reporting category by expressly excluding those same ten events....