UL's Appeals Process provides participants in the consensus process who have continuing objections the right to register an appeal.

Filing an Appeal - When notified that an objector wishes to appeal, the STP Project Manager will acknowledge the request generally within 5 working days. If the appellant provides all of the documentation to support the appeal, the Chair shall assign one or more STP members to develop the STP response to the appeal. If the appellant does not provide the necessary documentation, the Project Manager will contact the appellant and give three weeks to provide the necessary documentation. When the information is received, the rebuttal will be prepared by the person(s) designated by the Chair. If no additional documentation is received within the three week period, the comments associated with the objection will represent the appellant's final documentation.

Types of Appeals – There are two classifications of Appeals, administrative appeals and special circumstances appeals. Appeals will be heard only on those two types.

• Administrative Appeals – Administrative appeals require approval of majority of the appeals panel at hearing.  Administrative appeals are the following:

a)  Procedural issues –  these are issues where it is believed the Approved Regulations were not followed.

b)  Membership issues – these are issues where the STP Chair has accepted or denied membership based on interest    category classification of an application.

• Special Circumstances Appeals – Special circumstances appeals require approval of two-thirds of the appeals panel at the hearing since these deal with overriding the decision of the STP. (Note that the circumstances described in 4.2 and 4.3 are not appealable to UL’s Appeals Panel). Special circumstances appeals are the following:

a)  Safety issues – these are issues where there is overriding concern that publication or non-publication of the proposed requirements will result in a serious safety concern.   Technical issues are not appealable.

b)  Code Conflict issues – these are issues where the STP has not approved a proposal causing the standard to be in conflict with an ANSI recognized installation code or the Code of Federal Regulations. Another issue is where UL has decided not to process a proposal due to the fact that it conflicts with an ANSI recognized installation code or the Code of Federal Regulations.

Inappropriate Appeals – If the Appeals Panel Chair deems a request for an appeal to be inappropriate because it is based on technical rather than procedural issues, code conflicts, membership issues, or safety issues or is based on issues not under consideration by the ballot (such as objections to other parts of the Standard or based on certification issues) or is otherwise without merit, the appeal may be dismissed without a hearing.

Handling of Inappropriate Appeals - If an objector does not agree with the Appeals Panel Chair's determination that an objection is non-germane or is technical in nature, the matter may be referred to the Appeals Panel to determine if the appeal shall be dismissed without a hearing. The Appeals Panel is also empowered to dismiss any appeal without a hearing if it determines that it is without merit.

Conduct of Appeal - A senior UL standards staff member not involved in the standard in dispute shall serve as recording secretary. If a face-to-face hearing is scheduled, the location of the hearing will be selected by UL, taking into account the geographical location of the panel members. If the appellant(s) cannot attend the next scheduled appeals hearing, the hearing shall be conducted by teleconference on the scheduled date and if the appellant is not available for a teleconference, the appeal will be handled by correspondence on that date.

Conduct of Hearing - At the hearing, each side will be given 30 minutes (including rebuttal time) to present its case. Each side can have up to three speakers. Other observers may attend but will not be permitted to speak. The appellant presents first, followed by the STP or its representative (which may be a UL staff person). At the end of the presentation, the appellant may use whatever time is remaining to rebut UL. Following that, UL may use whatever time is remaining to rebut the appellant. Following the presentations and rebuttals, the Appeals Panel is free to ask questions of both parties. Both parties shall limit their replies to just answering the questions.

Decision - After the question and answer period, both parties shall be informed that a written decision will be issued, normally within 30 calendar days. The Appeals Panel will then go into executive session. A majority vote of the Appeals Panel is required to accept or deny an  administrative appeal and two-thirds vote of the Appeals Panel is required to accept or deny a special circumstances appeal.

The recording secretary will record the decision of the Appeals Panel, including whether to accept or deny the appeal, the reasons for the decision, any corrective actions that need to be taken, etc. The decision will be reviewed by the Appeals Panel Chair and by the Director of Standards and/or Legal Counsel before it is sent to all involved parties. The Appeals Panel decision is binding and final on all concerned.

Code of Ethics for Appeals Panel Members

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