Statutes governing utility commissions and their federal counterpart require a party to apply for rehearing before seeking judicial review. The application must be filed within a short period, commonly thirty days, and must specify each ground of error with particularity. A ground not raised is generally waived. On review, the commission's findings of fact are conclusive if supported by substantial evidence, and the order is reversed only if unlawful or unreasonable.
A settlor, cotrustee or beneficiary may ask a court to remove a trustee, and a court may act on its own initiative. The statutory grounds are a serious breach of trust, a lack of cooperation among cotrustees that substantially impairs administration, unfitness or persistent failure to administer effectively, and in most states a substantial change of circumstances or a request by all qualified beneficiaries. The last grounds also require a suitable successor.
An employer must retain the verification form for three years after the date of hire or one year after the date employment ends, whichever is later. A worker employed less than two years produces a date three years from the first day of employment; a worker employed longer produces a date one year from the last. Records for current employees are never disposed of. Retention past the calculated date increases the population an inspection reviews.
Riders and trackers permit a utility to recover a defined category of cost through a separate charge adjusted between general rate cases. The recurring objection is single-issue ratemaking: examining one cost without examining the revenues and cost reductions that would offset it can allow a utility to earn above its authorized return while rates rise. Commissions that permit such mechanisms typically attach conditions, including caps, reconciliation, earnings tests and periodic prudence review.
An internal review begins with a population drawn from payroll, proceeds either as a full census or as a documented sample, corrects defects under the annotation rules, and records the exercise in a memorandum stating scope, method, findings and corrections. The review must be applied uniformly across the population, and it must not be used to re-examine documents or to run existing employees through the electronic system.
A trustee must administer the trust solely in the interests of the beneficiaries. A sale, encumbrance or other transaction involving trust property entered into by the trustee for the trustee's own account, or otherwise affected by a conflict between fiduciary and personal interests, is voidable by an affected beneficiary. Proof that the price was fair does not save it. The exceptions are narrow and specific.
Parties to a rate proceeding may submit an offer of settlement at any time, and most general cases resolve that way. A commission must still find the result just and reasonable and in the public interest, and the record must support the finding. Settlements often state a total revenue change without allocating it among the components, which is why they are called black-box agreements. Contested settlements may be approved only where the record permits resolution of the disputed issues.
Any person notified of a proceeding, or any party to one, may propose an offer of settlement in writing. Submitting an offer waives the hearing, the right to file proposed findings, the right to appear before the hearing officer, post-hearing procedures and judicial review. A rejected offer is deemed withdrawn and may not be used in the record of a later proceeding. Orders commonly recite that the respondent neither admits nor denies the findings, and may impose bars and disqualifications.
The statute treats an employee as having specialized knowledge where they have special knowledge of the company product and its application in international markets, or an advanced level of knowledge of the company's processes and procedures. The regulation adds research, equipment, techniques and management to the list. Refusals turn on evidence that describes competence generally rather than knowledge that is distinguishable within the field.
State lobbying laws are drafted independently of the federal statute and diverge from it on almost every element. Definitions frequently reach communications with career staff, administrative agency proceedings and grassroots campaigns that federal law excludes. Thresholds may be measured in compensation, in expenditures, in time or not at all. Filing calendars are more frequent in many states, and local ordinances add separate registration in numerous cities and counties.
An employer may generate or store the forms electronically only in a system with reasonable controls for integrity and against unauthorized alteration, a quality assurance program with regular evaluations, an indexing and retrieval system, and the ability to reproduce legible hardcopies. Every creation, update or correction must produce a secure permanent record of date, identity and action. A defective electronic signature makes the form improperly completed.
A trustee who commits a breach of trust is liable for the greater of the amount required to restore the value of the trust property and distributions to what they would have been had the breach not occurred, or the profit the trustee made by reason of the breach. The first branch requires proof of a counterfactual. The second is disgorgement and needs no proof of loss.
