Civilian Board of Contract Appeals in the United States

The Civillian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) started operations on January 6, 2007. The Board hears several kinds of cases, including “Appeals of decisions issued pursuant to the Contract Disputes Act, 41 U.S.C. §§ 601-613, by contracting officers” of most U.S. Federal government agencies other than the the military and the U.S. Postal Service.

Legal Materials

The Clerk’s Office phone number is 202-606-8800. The CBCA web site provides information about the Board, contact information, Rules of Procedure, forms, judicial biographies and decisions (discussed below).

Decisions: Sources for CBCA decisions include:

1. The decisions page of the CBCA web site (free);
2. Lexis has a database of just CBCA decisions (PUBCON;CIVBCA), and another with decisions by the CBCA and other Boards of Contract Appeals (PUBCON;ALLBCA);
3. Westlaw has CBCA decisions with decisions of other Boards of Contract Appeals (FGC-BCA);
4. CCH’s Contract Appeals Decisions has all the CBCA decisions, as well as decisions from the other Boards of Contract Appeals. Available in print, on CD or online (by subscription);
5. The CCH Government Contracts Reporter has digests of CBCA and other Board of Contract Appeals Decisions. Available on CD-ROM or online (by subscription).

You can KeyCite some Board of Contract Appeals decisions on Westlaw or, if you have a set available, you can find later cases and decisions using the print Government Contracts Citator (West).

Predecessor Boards

The General Services Administration and the Departments of Agriculture, Energy, Housing and Urban Development, Interior, Labor, Transportation, and Veterans Affairs each used to have their own Board of Contract Appeals. These Boards were merged into the Civilian Boards of Contract Appeals on January 6, 2007. See the Predecessors page on the CBCA web site for more information.

Decisions of these predecessor Boards are included in the Lexis, Westlaw and CCH sources discussed above. Lexis also offers decision databases for the individual Boards (listed here). You can still get Contract Appeals Board decisions free online for the General Services Administration.

See Also

Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals
Government Contracts
United States Postal Service