Just to complete this thread, let me tell you about the email I received today. I was denied my petition for a rehearing. Once again if anyone wants a copy just PM me. From the beginning I thought this was a long shot but I thought I had a better chance than I did. Let me list my thoughts on the why I lost:
1) If you miss the initial hearing, a rehearing is a huge hurdle. The rules are setup to do this once, not keep having rehearings. An argument that might sway the hearing is not enough for requesting a rehearing.
2) I got sloppy and lazy on my request. I'm not a lawyer, I treated the request as an appeal to fairness and common sense. The response from the original petitioner, came from a email address in the California judiciary. Her response was researched and referenced several applicable NH laws.
3) There was no groundswell of support for the rehearing. Only three of us sent in requests and one was withdrawn. So from the hearing officers point of view there was little reason to reopen a closed issue.
My actions going forward:
1) Watch the DOS website for petitions affecting my favorite areas. I have the shortcut on my desktop, plus I set up a web site watch to send me an email if the page changes.
2) Get a lawyer, If I have to deal with this process again. I made a lot of rookie errors in my request, that clearly showed up in the denial.
3) Build support, I know a bunch of people that I told casually about this. If my favorite area was under fire, I would push them to write.
All in all, I'm glad I tried. I'm also relieved it was denied. If I could only recruit two others to write, I'm betting that I would have been alone at the rehearing.
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