From the PR: "Baltia intends to request a formal
Post# of 41413
"Baltia intends to request a formal hearing with the assigned hearing officer from the FAA within the next 10 days."
Generally speaking, the hearing officer is an administrative law judge (ALJ). I'm not certain that is the case here because people use those terms interchangeably even though they aren't always meant that way.
To sum it up: federal agencies deal with very technical issues (think nuclear energy, etc.). The government does not want to deal with those issues unless they have to. After all, let the people who know that shit work it out. If they can't, then bring in the force of the federal government.
Baltia is going through the administrative procedures. I suspect things will work themselves out this way (consider the private investigation). If they don't...time to go to big-boy court (ALJ are like trial court judges...just the first step). That's when shit gets very real. Federal circuit judges don't want to be bothered with shit that someone else should've have taken care of.
Baltia's in a good place. Google the scandals/corruption that the FAA has dealt with recently. I don't think they're looking for anymore black eyes.