Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Commission Rule 201.16(f) does permit electronic service by the parties. We understand that many parties have continued to deliver paper copies for service, but our regulations do not require such means. Please contact other agencies (i.e., Department of Commerce) for their service requirements.

No. APO releases will continue on a scheduled basis. Please check with the Case Manager or Investigator if you have any questions about the schedule for releases.

No. Access is only provided to the lead counsel for each party.

APO releases will be available for download from a secure filing sharing platform. Access to the system will only be provided to the individual designated as lead counsel in the firm’s Entries of Appearance and APO applications. After the deadline for Entries of Appearance and APO applications, the Case Manager will issue the service list for each investigation (there are no changes to this procedure or timeline). At this time, the Case Manager will send an email to request verification for the correct individual email address for the lead counsel. This email will also and provide information about the secure download process. We will not accept a group email address for purposes of providing access to the system; the email address must be the individual email address for the lead counsel. Please be on the lookout for that information and respond as quickly as possible so that we may verify we have the correct email address and can invite you to the secured folder for the investigation. Once lead counsel has access to the folder, the Case Manager will send an email each time documents are added to the folder for download.

No. New Title VII petition filings will now have a 5:15pm COB deadline to be marked as received that business day, so long as they have been properly filed without any procedural deficiencies. Note that a petition is not marked as received that business day until our staff has reviewed the filing for procedural deficiencies. If a petition is filed at, or close to the deadline, it may not be reviewed for procedural deficiencies until the next business day, which could affect the date it is marked as received. We encourage filers to file as early as possible in order to give our staff time to review the filing on the business day it is filed for any procedural deficiencies.

You may file your petition electronically on EDIS. Please be certain to file public and confidential portions of the submission separately and select the correct security level for each. Please note that the Commission is not requiring original signatures or notary seals on your documents at this time.

Yes. Authorized applicants to the APO must continue to comply with and file a certification of destruction of APO materials as required by Commission Rules 207.7(c) and 207.93(c)(ii)(C). If parties are currently unable to destroy physical copies of APO materials due to building access issues, they should submit a certification that all electronic copies of such materials have been destroyed and no copies of such material have been made available to any person to whom disclosure was not specifically authorized. In that certification, parties should also indicate that they will file a separate certification of destruction when they are able to access and destroy any physical copies of such materials. Parties should file this second certification as soon as practicable (but no later than 30 days) after they regain access to their building and physical copies.