§  0.341   Authority of administrative law judge.

   (a) After an administrative law judge has been designated to preside at
   a hearing and until he has issued an initial decision or certified the
   record to the Commission for decision, or the proceeding has been
   transferred to another administrative law judge, all motions, petitions
   and other pleadings shall be acted upon by such administrative law
   judge, except the following:

   (1) Those which are to be acted upon by the Commission. See
   § 1.291(a)(1) of this chapter.

   (2) Those which are to be acted upon by the Chief Administrative Law
   Judge under § 0.351.

   (b) Any question which would be acted upon by the administrative law
   judge if it were raised by the parties to the proceeding may be raised
   and acted upon by the administrative law judge on his own motion.

   (c) Any question which would be acted upon by the Chief Administrative
   Law Judge or the Commission, if it were raised by the parties, may be
   certified by the administrative law judge, on his own motion, to the
   Chief Administrative Law Judge, or the Commission, as the case may be.

   (d) In the conduct of routine broadcast comparative hearings involving
   applicants for only new facilities, i.e., cases that do not involve
   numerous applicants and/or motions to enlarge issues, the presiding
   administrative law judge shall make every effort to conclude the case
   within nine months of the release of the hearing designation order. In
   so doing, the presiding judge will make every effort to release an
   initial decision in such cases within 90 days of the filing of the last
   responsive pleading.

   (e) Upon assignment by the Chief Administrative Law Judge,
   Administrative Law Judges, including the Chief Judge, will act as
   settlement judges in appropriate cases. See 47 CFR 1.244 of this
   chapter.

   (f)(1) For program carriage complaints filed pursuant to § 76.1302 of
   this chapter that the Chief, Media Bureau refers to an administrative
   law judge for an initial decision, the presiding administrative law
   judge shall release an initial decision in compliance with one of the
   following deadlines:

   (i) 240 calendar days after a party informs the Chief Administrative
   Law Judge that it elects not to pursue alternative dispute resolution
   as set forth in § 76.7(g)(2) of this chapter; or

   (ii) If the parties have mutually elected to pursue alternative dispute
   resolution pursuant to § 76.7(g)(2) of this chapter, within 240 calendar
   days after the parties inform the Chief Administrative Law Judge that
   they have failed to resolve their dispute through alternative dispute
   resolution.

   (2) The presiding administrative law judge may toll these deadlines
   under the following circumstances:

   (i) If the complainant and defendant jointly request that the presiding
   administrative law judge toll these deadlines in order to pursue
   settlement discussions or alternative dispute resolution or for any
   other reason that the complainant and defendant mutually agree
   justifies tolling; or

   (ii) If complying with the deadline would violate the due process
   rights of a party or would be inconsistent with fundamental fairness;
   or

   (iii) In extraordinary situations, due to a lack of adjudicatory
   resources available at the time in the Office of Administrative Law
   Judges.

   [ 29 FR 6442 , May 16, 1964, as amended at  37 FR 19372 , Sept. 20, 1972;
    41 FR 14870 , Apr. 8, 1976;  56 FR 792 , Jan. 9, 1991;  62 FR 4170 , Jan.
   29, 1997;  76 FR 60671 , Sept. 29, 2011]