3. Procedural History

On February 4, 2010, the Commission opened this OII into the operations and practices of Americatel to determine whether Americatel violated the laws, rules and regulations governing the way in which consumers are billed for products or services, by billing customers for dial-around long distance monthly service without authorization, and by applying incorrect rates to customers' phone bills.

At the May 7, 2010 prehearing conference, the procedural schedule was discussed and developed. The Assigned Commissioner's Ruling and Scoping Memo was issued on May 21, 2010 and ordered CPSD's Opening Testimony to be served by July 26, 2010 and Reply Testimony by September 29, 2010. Americatel's Rebuttal Testimony was to be served by September 7. Both parties timely served testimony as described in detail below.

In addition, the parties had extensive discussions about discovery during September 2010, and initially requested an extension of the discovery period which was granted. However, the parties also explored settlement negotiations and decided in late September 2010 to submit the disputes to the Commission's alternative dispute resolution (ADR) program for mediation. This voluntary ADR program provides a neutral ALJ and offers several dispute resolution methods as an effective tool in some instances to help protect the public interest and conserve litigation resources.

At the request of the parties, ALJ Darling issued a ruling on October 4, 2010 that postponed the evidentiary hearings, and otherwise postponed the schedule of the proceeding, in order to accommodate ADR. In late October, the parties were successful in reaching a mediated settlement of all issues in the proceeding. They requested sufficient time to develop and execute a Settlement Agreement to reflect this resolution. On January 11, 2011, the Settling Parties filed a Joint Motion For Approval of Settlement Agreement. No responses to the motion have been filed. On March 25, 2011, the ALJ issued a ruling ordering the Settling Parties to identify the testimony they sought to have admitted to the record. The parties complied on March 29, 2011.