R.G. Edmonson | Feb 17, 2011 8:43AM EST
The Federal Maritime Commission is taking the first steps toward making it easier for the public to conduct business there. Commission staff members at a meeting Wednesday presented their first recommendations for revising the agency’s standard rules and procedures.
One revision will save trees. Previously, the commission required attorneys to file 15 printed copies of each case to be considered. Now they will have to file only five printed copies plus an electronic file of the material.
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The rules and procedures spell out the steps the public has to take to present petitions, complaints and other matters to be considered by the commission. Chairman Richard A. Lidinsky Jr. last December instructed the staff to find ways to simplify the process.
Other recommendations include a simplified small claims process. Discovery material will no longer have to be filed until the commission takes up a case. All of the changes will be presented as proposed rules that will be published in the Federal Register and available for public comment.
-- Contact R.G. Edmonson at bedmonson@joc.com.
