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The Federal Trade Commission has designated Commissioner J. Thomas Rosch as the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) in the administrative trial on the merits challenging the proposed acquisition by Inova Health System Foundation of Prince William Health System, Inc. The issuance of the complaint was announced by the FTC earlier today. The Administrative Procedure Act permits the Commission to determine whether the Commission itself, one or more Commissioners, or an Administrative Law Judge will preside at the taking of evidence in administrative trials such as this. In addition, the Commission’s own rules provide full discretion to determine whether it should preside over a particular administrative proceeding itself, designate one or more Commission members to preside over the proceeding, or refer the proceeding to an ALJ.

The FTC designated Commissioner Rosch based on his 40 years of experience as a trial lawyer, predominantly in the context of complex competition law cases. The Commission believes this experience makes him the best available candidate to serve as a trier of fact in this case. In all respects, Commissioner Rosch will act only as an ALJ, and will not participate in any appeal to the Commission resulting from an initial decision.

The FTC vote approving the designation was 3-0, with Commissioner Rosch not participating. Copies of the designation order can be found as a link to this press release on the Commission’s Web site.

Copies of the documents mentioned in this release are available from the FTC’s Web site at http://www.ftc.gov and from the FTC’s Consumer Response Center, Room 130, 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20580. Call toll-free: 1-877-FTC-HELP.