65- 407 C.M.R. ch. 110, § 9

Current through 2024-25, June 19, 2024

Section 407-110-9 - ADJUDICATORY PROCEEDINGS; PREHEARING PRACTICE

A.Prehearing Conferences

The presiding officer may, upon written notice to all parties and proposed intervenors, hold a prehearing conference before or upon completion of discovery, for the purposes of ruling on pending motions and petitions for intervention, setting procedures and timetables for discovery, scheduling hearings and other proceedings, considering motions, limiting the amount of additional discovery and addressing other discovery issues, formulating or simplifying the issues, obtaining admissions of fact and of documents which will avoid unnecessary proof, arranging for the exchange of proposed exhibits or prepared expert testimony, limiting the number of witnesses and consolidating the examination of witnesses, setting forth the scope of recross and redirect examination, providing for the procedure to be followed at the hearing, identifying proposed witnesses, discussing the status of stipulation negotiations, if any, and for any other purposes that may expedite the orderly conduct and disposition of the proceeding.

1.Prehearing Memoranda

The presiding officer may require the parties to file prehearing memoranda and to serve a copy of the memoranda on all parties of record.

2.Prehearing Order

The presiding officer may issue an order based upon the prehearing conference or the prehearing memoranda which will control the course of subsequent proceedings. Modification of the order may be allowed at the hearing by the presiding officer for good cause or to avoid significant prejudice.

B. Discovery

The Maine Rules of Civil Procedure and this subpart shall govern the parties' rights to discovery before the Commission.

1.Discovery by Commission and Staff

In addition to the discovery rights contained in the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure, the Commission shall have all the rights granted by statute to obtain all necessary information to enable it to perform its duties.

2.Data Requests by Parties

In addition to the discovery rights provided by the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure, all parties shall have the right to serve data requests upon any other party. The following procedures shall be observed in filing data requests and responses:

a. A copy of each such request and data response shall be filed with the Commission.

b. Data requests shall not be unduly repetitious, shall be relevant to the subject matter involved in the proceeding, and shall be in writing specifically directed to a party or parties, unless requested on the record during a hearing. It is not ground for objection that the information sought will be inadmissible at hearing if the information sought appears reasonably calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.

c. The response to each item shall begin in a separate page and shall include the text of the request, the date, the name of the author of the data response and the identity of the witness responsible for the response.

d. Unless another time is fixed by the presiding officer, responses to data requests shall be served within one month from receipt by the responding parties. Objections to data requests shall be served within one week from receipt unless otherwise ordered by the presiding officer.

3.Technical Conferences

In lieu of, or in addition to, data requests, the presiding officer may schedule technical conferences during which oral discovery will take place. A transcript may be made of such conferences and all or part of the transcript may be entered into the record in the same manner as data responses.

4.Oral Data Requests

If during the course of examination of a witness, the witness states that he or she cannot testify to a matter from memory or following a review of readily available documents, the examining party, subject to objection by the party whose witness is being examined, may make an oral data request for the information. The presiding officer shall assign a number to each oral data request.

5.Use of Discovery

Any discovery obtained by any party pursuant to this subpart may be used during the proceeding to the extent permitted by the Maine Rules of Evidence.

6.Sanctions

Any and all of the sanctions for failure to respond to discovery requests provided in Rule 37 of the Maine Rules of Civil Procedure are available to the Commission or presiding officer, except that dismissal for failure to respond to discovery a request shall be ordered only by the Commission.

65- 407 C.M.R. ch. 110, § 9