AT&T Backs FCC Suggestions for Harmonizing Complaint Processes, Proposes Another Rule
AT&T praised the FCC for proposing a streamlined Enforcement Bureau complaint process and supported "suggestions to harmonize the procedural rules that apply to Section 208 formal complaints, Section 224 pole attachment complaints, and disability access complaints" under the Communications Act.…
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The commission should also "adopt a rule setting forth processes for the filing and consideration of pre-answer Motions to Dismiss for all kinds of formal complaints," said the company's filing posted Monday in docket 17-245 on an NPRM (see 1709180057). "Although the Commission already has authority to entertain and grant such motions, adopting a rule specifying procedures for doing so would provide Commission staff and formal complaint parties with useful guidance and certainty. ... [M]any formal complaints raise threshold legal questions that, if decided at early stages of the proceedings, would significantly narrow or eliminate entirely the litigation, minimizing or avoiding the need for potentially costly, lengthy, and onerous discovery, non-dispositive motions practice, and fact-finding." Commenters had mixed views last October on the notice (see 1710270027).