3. Procedural Issues

280 Citizens, WEM, and CARE have satisfied all the procedural requirements necessary to make their requests for compensation, as explained below. WEM's compensation claim regarding its showing of significant financial hardship is discussed separately below.

The prehearing conference in this matter was held on January 30, 2003. 280 Citizens filed its timely NOI on February 7, 2003 and supplemented its NOI on March 27, 2003. On May 6, 2003, the assigned Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found 280 Citizens to be a customer under the Public Utilities Code, that it met the significant financial hardship condition, and that it would be eligible for compensation. 280 Citizens filed its request for compensation on October 22, 2004, within 60 days of D.04-08-046 being issued, and supplemented its request on November 1, 2004.

On December 5, 2003, CARE filed a motion to intervene out of time with an attached NOI. WEM filed a petition to intervene out of time and an NOI on December 2, 2003, and amended these filings on December 15, 2003. On March 11, 2004, the assigned ALJ ruled to accept CARE's NOI as timely, found insufficient information to determine whether CARE meets the definition of customer or the significant financial hardship condition, and allowed CARE to amend its NOI on or before March 25, 2004. CARE filed a supplement to its NOI on March 25, 2004. On May 10, 2004, the assigned ALJ found that CARE was a customer under the Public Utilities Code, met the significant financial hardship condition, and would be eligible for compensation. CARE timely filed its request for compensation on October 7, 2004, and filed corrections to its request on October 29, 2004. In response to requests by the ALJ, CARE provided supplemental information via several e-mails, which have been placed in the correspondence file in this proceeding.

The March 11, 2004 ALJ ruling also accepted WEM's amended NOI and found that WEM is a customer under the Public Utilities Code as a representative of Dorothy J. Edwards and Jesse Mason, PG&E ratepayers, but that WEM had not provided documentation necessary to show significant financial hardship. WEM timely filed its request for compensation on October 22, 2004, and amended its request on April 1, 2005. WEM also filed supplemental information regarding its compensation request on October 26 and November 1, 2004. On October 27, 2004, WEM filed a motion for leave to file under seal certain confidential materials regarding its clients' personal financial information, along with a motion for protective order regarding this information. These motions were granted by ALJ ruling dated November 10, 2004.