[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 49, Volume 5, Parts 400 to 999]
[Revised as of October 1, 1998]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 49CFR821]

[Page 1084-1085] 
 
                        TITLE 49--TRANSPORTATION
 
                  CHAPTER VIII--NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION
                              SAFETY BOARD
 
PART 821--RULES OF PRACTICE IN AIR SAFETY PROCEEDINGS--Table of Contents
 
Subpart E--Law Judges

Sec. 821.35  Assignment, duties, and powers.

    (a) Assignment of law judge and duration of assignment. The chief 
law judge shall assign a law judge to preside over the proceeding. Until 
such assignment, motions, requests, and documents shall be addressed to 
the Docket Section, Office of Administrative Law Judges, for handling by 
the chief law judge, who may handle these matters personally or who may 
delegate all or any of them to other law judges for decision. After 
assignment, all motions, requests, and documents shall be addressed to 
that

[[Page 1085]]

law judge. The authority of the assigned law judge shall terminate upon 
certification of the record to the Board, or upon expiration of the 
period within which appeals from initial decisions may be filed, or upon 
the law judge's withdrawal from the proceeding.
    (b) Powers of law judges. Law judges shall have the following 
powers:
    (1) To give notice of and to hold prehearing conferences and 
hearings and to consolidate proceedings which involve a common question 
of law or fact;
    (2) To administer oaths and affirmations;
    (3) To examine witnesses;
    (4) To issue subpoenas and to take or cause depositions to be taken;
    (5) To receive evidence and rule upon objections and offers of 
proof;
    (6) To rule upon motions in assigned cases;
    (7) To regulate the conduct of the hearing;
    (8) To hold conferences, before or during the hearing for the 
settlement or simplification of issues;
    (9) To dispose of procedural requests or similar matters; and
    (10) To make initial decisions, and, if so directed by the Board, to 
certify records with or without recommended decisions.
    (c) Disqualification of a law judge. A law judge shall withdraw from 
the proceedings if at any time he deems himself disqualified. If, prior 
to the initial decision, there is filed an affidavit of personal bias or 
disqualifications, with substantiating facts, and the law judge does not 
withdraw, the Board will determine the matter as a part of the record 
and decision in the proceeding, if an appeal from the law judge's 
initial decision is filed. The Board will not otherwise consider any 
claim of bias or disqualification as to the law judge's assignment to 
conduct the hearing. The Board, in its discretion, may order a hearing 
on a charge of bias or disqualification.

[40 FR 30243, July 17, 1975, as amended at 59 FR 59048, Nov. 15, 1994]