FOR RELEASE
Contact: Janie Sheng (202) 245-0221
08/18/1997 (Monday)
No. 97-68


FedRelay 1 (800) 877-8339
www.stb.gov



SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD IMPLEMENTS "ONE PARTY-ONE REPRESENTATIVE" POLICY FOR SERVICE LISTS






FOR RELEASE:                               Contact: Dennis Watson
Monday, August 18, 1997                            (202) 565-1596
No. 97-68                                      TDD (202) 565-1695


SURFACE TRANSPORTATION BOARD
IMPLEMENTS "ONE PARTY-ONE REPRESENTATIVE" POLICY
FOR SERVICE LISTS


Surface Transportation Board (Board) Chairman Linda J. Morgan announced that the Board is implementing a new policy to simplify the service lists that the Board maintains with a view to saving time and expense to the Board in serving its decisions, and saving time and expense to parties in serving their filings on other parties. Under this policy, only one official representative per party in a proceeding before the Board will be placed on the service list for that proceeding.
In the past, whenever a person signed and filed a document with the Board on a party’s behalf in a case, that person was added to the Board’s service list (list of persons to receive documents) maintained for that case. Later, if someone else signed and filed another document on behalf of the same party, that person’s name also was added to the service list for the same case. This practice needlessly added names to service lists which, in turn, resulted in increased time, copying, and mailing
-- MORE--
costs to the Board, as it served copies of its decisions on multiple representatives of individual parties, and to parties, as they served copies of their filings on other parties on the service list maintained for the proceeding. The Board’s new policy is consistent with the principle that a party designate a single person to be its official representative in litigation-type proceedings.
The Board will continue its practice of placing the name of only one official representative per party on a service list when multiple names appear on the filing, even when that party specifically requests the addition of other persons to the service list. The Board also will continue its practice of providing only one copy of its decisions to each representative on a service list, even when that individual represents more than one party to the proceeding. The Board will designate as the official representative the first person to sign a filing on behalf of a party. However, the Board will be able to change that designation when requested in writing by the party.
The Board will continue to maintain the names of all persons signing filings on behalf of parties because that information helps in the rapid identification and location of filings. In addition, the Board’s change in policy regarding service lists will not affect its practice where, in most instances, the signature of an attorney or practitioner (a non-attorney permitted to practice before the Board) acts as a certification of the accuracy and truth of a document’s contents under Section 1104.4 of Title 49, Code of Federal Regulations (49 CFR 1104.4).

###