United States: Federal Circuit Cases Impacting Jurisdictional Precedent In Bid Protests And Contract Disputes Act Claims

We recently examined four recent Federal Circuit cases that "signal significant changes to long-standing jurisdictional precedent in bid protests and Contract Disputes Act (CDA) claims."

In the article for Reuters, we pointed out that the two cases related to bid protests indicate that, "moving forward, issues of interested party, prejudice, and the Blue & Gold waiver rule are no longer bases upon which the COFC [Court of Federal Claims] can dismiss a protest for lack of jurisdiction. Instead, they will be considered when evaluating whether a protester has stated a claim, which may encourage more protests."

We explained that, "[a]s for CDA claims, these developments similarly signal that the Federal Circuit is interested in clarifying whether the claim-processing rules of the CDA and its implementing regulations are jurisdictional. They also indicate a slight leveling of the playing field between government and contractors in CDA disputes since the government has often cited to procedural defects, including sum certain and price definitization, as jurisdictional issues long after the contractor's opportunity to cure any potential issue has passed."

The full article, "Federal Circuit Signals Broad Changes to Jurisdictional Issues in Bid Protests and Contract Disputes Act Claims," was published by Reuters on June 27 and is available online or in the PDF provided.