Bid Protests

Court of Federal Claims Bid Protest and GAO Protest Lawyers

Protesting a government contract award and avoiding. costly legal mistakes during litigation at the Court of Federal Claims (COFC), Government Accountability Office (GAO) comes at a price.

Failure to meet the procedural requirements and short deadlines can get the case dismissed without getting to the merits.

The bid protest process also requires a factual and legal basis for filing a government protest. Candidly, the agency does make mistakes during source selection or when posting the initial solicitation. Posing the best legal arguments to show how the agency violated procurement can be a serious challenge to many government contractors.

With decades of experience actually working for the government and litigating government bid protests before the GAO and Court of Federal Claims, the government contract protest lawyers at Watson & Associates, LLCs understand the legal issues that can arise and how the government may try to defend against government protests filed at the various courts.

Meeting the government contract protest process requirements also requires you to meet short deadlines. Meeting the automatic stay requirements or filing a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) at the Court of Federal Claims can be challenging. The arguments made to the judges and courts must be more than just a disagreement with the agency’s actions (many companies make this serious mistake). Instead, making the critical arguments in your bid protest letter and uncovering the failure to meet the FAR regulations and source selection statutes is critical to winning.

Experience and What We Do

With law offices in Washington DC and Denver, CO, the bid protest attorneys at Watson & Associates, LLC help small businesses and larger DOD contractors throughout the United States and overseas to analyze and provide clients with dependable legal counsel throughout the government contract protest process.

Collectively, we have over three decades litigating disputes and challenging the agency’s bidding process, assessing the context of post-award debriefings and contract awards. The law firm represents both protestors and intervenors (successful awardee).

As a government contracts law firm, we provide clear direction and present a no-frills approach to our clients because we understand that businesses need sound legal advice to make the right decisions.

Agency Level Bid Protest Law Firm

When the source selection team makes a flawed award decision, our bid protest lawyers work with our clients to file the appropriate agency level bid protest. If the error is obvious, sometimes the agency will sustain the protest without having to spend thousands of dollars in bid protest litigation.

GAO Bid Protest Lawyers

Watson & Associates government protest lawyers help contractors to assess and analyze the agency award to see whether there is merit to filing a GAO bid protest. Protesting a government contract award at the GAO shows that the agency generally prevails because the contracting cannot overcome the reasonableness standard and great deference that GAO gives the agency. Whether you have a pre-award protest or post-award protest, you must still meet the short deadlines.

Court of Federal Claims Bid Protest Attorneys

The government contract protest process allows you to file a bid protest at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims in two common situations. (1) after GAO has given an adverse ruling (contractors can still file a new protest at the COFC). (2) Our bid protest attorneys can directly file a Court of Federal Claims bid protest without going to GAO or the Agency. There is no automatic stay. However, the protest letter will also include a request for. Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) which, if successfully argued, will still have the same result as the CICA stay.

Bid Protest Appeals (Court of Appeals for Federal Circuit Lawyers)

When you file a bid protest at the Court of Federal Claims, if the court issues an adverse decision, you can appeal the decision to the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. This type of bid protest appeal is not intended to relitigate the merits of the case. Instead, you must show where the lower court committed legal and reversible error. At Watson & Associates, our federal circuit court bid protest appeal attorneys represent government contractors at this level where the stakes are high and there may be a serious legal error in the lower court’s record.

Clear Direction and Trusting Legal Advice

At Watson & Associates, our government contract protest attorneys frequently work with high-level executives and management to develop a sound and effective legal strategy that minimizes the chances of getting an adverse result. We explain the strengths and weaknesses in the case and help executives to make a sound business judgment decision. Even after the bid protest letter or complaint is filed, if we uncover reasons to believe that the protest will more than likely be unsuccessful, the law firm will notify clients accordingly.

Our goal is to think out of the box and to provide a team of legal professionals that understand the procurement process and can develop an effective bid protest strategy to increase the chances of getting a favorable result.

Pre-Award and Post-Award Bid Protest Attorney Services

Whether you have a pre-award bid protest or post-award bid protest, our bid protest lawyers can help. The law firm has deep experience with the federal procurement process and the rules that source selection officials must follow: Here is a list of the types of bid protest cases we handle:

• Solicitation defects
• Unduly restrictive solicitations
• Lack of meaningful discussions
• Lowest price technically acceptable protests
• Sole source justification and awards
• Undisclosed government estimates
• Past performance evaluation government contract protests
• Responsibility and ethics integrity issues
• Best value and technical evaluations
• Price realism and reasonableness
• Bid protest and corrective action
• Best value and trade-offs
• COFC appeals to the Federal Circuit Court
• SBA certificate of competency bid disputes

Some of our government protest attorneys have actually worked in federal contracting agencies and are in a unique position to advocate on your behalf. Get a Free Initial Consultation Today. Call Toll Free 1-866-601-5518.

What are bid protest filing deadlines?

Many government contract protest litigants spend thousands of dollars arguing whether the protest is untimely or not. Basic bid protest regulations state that if your bid protest challenges the contents and improprieties in the agency’s solicitation then your deadline is before bid opening or before the time set for receipt of initial proposals. See 4 CFR 21.2(a)(1).

• If the solicitation defect was not apparent before the above time then the protest deadline is to file no later than 10 days after the defect solicitation became apparent.

Bid protest filing timelines in In all other cases state that the case must be filed not later than 10 days after the protester knew or should have known the basis of protest (whichever is earlier), with the exception of protests challenging a procurement conducted on the basis of competitive proposals under which a debriefing is ‟requested and, when requested, is required,” that is, a debriefing required by law.

If you have timely requested a “required debriefing” then you must file your initial protest no later than 10 days after the date on which the debriefing was held. See 4 CFR 21.2(a)(2).

Contact Watson’s Government Protest Attorneys

To discuss your situation or to protest government contract awards, call Watson & Associates’ COFC and GAO government contract protest attorneys at 1-866-601-5518. We represent clients in all states and overseas.