The government Agencies enter into several contracts each year and each contract has many bidders. The federal agencies requireto a work contracts in accordance with many laws and regulations. The agencies always act in good faith but in such a complicated environment that mistakes are bound to happen.A bid protest is a formal process of informing that the agency or the government accounting office (GAO) that they have made a mistake. This allows the contractor and the Agents involved to ensure that the contracts are awarded fairly. The person who is representing the business can file a protest that is eligible for the award if the protest is sustained.
Why are bid protest lawyers required?
At times due to competition the companies decide to file a bid protest of the Agencies award decision. This becomes another tax that the company must make a decision. The statistics show that there is less than 20% chance of winning government bid protests, but the companies still have to be the pros and cons while protesting a government contract order. A bid protest lawyers can help in the following types of cases-
- Pre-award bid protest
- Post award bid protest
- Sole source justification
- Organizational conflicts of interest
- Conflict of interest
- Cost realism analysis
- Improper technical proposal evaluations
- Competition in Contracting Act disputes
The bid protest lawyers file and intervene for small businesses seek to exercise or defend the rights of the client. Legal issues and court procedures are very complex and confusing. Winning a protest is sifting through relevant facts, applying statutory or legal authority. To win a bid protest one must convincingly find out the mistakes of the government.
The lawyer provides clear direction and counsel to the clients and advises them whether there is a legal merit in the case or not.
They provide
- Legal review of the factual basis of the bid protest,
- The required protest letters and legal briefs to be drafted,
- Represent successful awardees as clients who want to file a protest.
Filing a bid protest also means deciding the best strategic place to file it. One has the choice of filing an agency protest, GAO protest, Court of Federal Claims bid protest or SBA size protest while challenging a bidder.
A bid protest lawyers helps the government contractors in all states to avoid the most costly mistakes in laws and regulations. A good law firm generally provide services like-
- Avoid costly mistakes that could get the protest dismissed
- Get a detailed analysis of the merit of the case
- Get reliable legal advice and aggressive representation from the best lawyers.
What does the lawyer do?
The lawyer gets access to competitive legal fees when compared to large law firms. A bid protest lawyers can help the company to retain the contract it was fairly awarded. They present the relevant facts, laws and legal precedents to protect the company’s rights with persuasive arguments. A lawyer has many years of experience representing the companies against home that bit competitive file a protest.
The law firms of an offer companies a free consultation to review the facts of the case with the skilled bid protest lawyers. Merit based protest filed by an experience lawyer does not delay the system but it serves as a check on the system to ensure that the government acts responsibly within the limits of the law.
Long term relationship with the client
Agencies often appreciate a bid protest that exposes clear government mistakes. Nearly every contractor knows what actually needs to be done. The lawyers know well where there is an opportunity. Only winning the protest is not enough and there must also be a business advantage to be gained by the contract of through protesting. Good bid protest lawyers are not only successful in winning protest but also in seeing their clients being awarded the contracts that were protested. The ultimate goal is should be to win the award. The lawyers are concerned about a long term relationship with the client to find until there is something to be gained from it.
Disputes of bid protests
The most frequent mistake made by contractors is to wait too long to file a protest which results in being dismissed as untimely. If the contractor believes that there is a violation of the law regarding the bids of the proposals, the protest must be typically filed within 10 days of when the knowledge was gained. If the case is not filed within the allotted time, the right to protest will be lost no matter what the violation is. There can also be many other disputes in a bid protest and in that case one needs to contact a lawyer or a law firm.
Some of these include
- Solicitation defects
- Late bids
- Source selection
- Task and delivery order contracts
- Undisclosed estimates of government agencies
- Sole justification contracts
- Freedom of Information Act requests
Remedies of filing a protest
First, filing a bid protest which will result in a stay of the execution of the current contract until the protest has been resolved. This is to be done by bid protest lawyers to ensure that everything is done in a strategic manner. Second, if the complaint has merit, the outcome could be in either presentation of the contract or a new appeal of the proposals. Finally in the certain situations, the cost of the bid protest may be covered by the agency.
