Bid Protest

The Miami Lobbying Firm of Gazitua Letelier helps clients distinguish between protests that have a realistic chance of winning and those that are likely to fail in Miami and South Florida. Some companies believe that they should never protest because they will be looked upon poorly by the agency and will not get any business from the procuring agency in the future if they protest. In the vast majority of cases, this belief is untrue.

The firm has extensive experience bid protest process both in and out of government. We are prepared to represent you from the preparation of the initial protest to hearings.


A bid protest is a challenge to the award or proposed award of a contract for procurement of goods and services or a challenge to the terms of a solicitation for such a contract.  Protests may be filed against procurement actions by any County, City, State or Federal Government Agency.  Bid protests are an integral part of government contracting and are now filed by many of the largest government contractors in Greater Miami and Miami Dade County.

Only “interested parties” may file or intervene in protests.  In the case of a solicitation challenge, an interested party is generally a potential bidder for the contract.  In the case of a contract award challenge, an interested party is generally an actual bidder that did not win the contract.  In addition, other factors, such as the bidder’s standing in the competition and the nature of the issues raised may affect whether it qualifies as an interested party in a Miami Dade County bid protest.

In deciding whether to protest, a protester must quickly consider the strengths of their case and whether potential Miami Dade County bid protest arguments should be pursued.  A protest challenging the award of a contract must be filed within days of when a protester knows or should know of the basis of the protest.  The protesting party must be prepared to maximize the value of their bids in order to suspend contract award or performance.

Miami-Dade has significant discretion in the award of public contracts.  However, such discretion may not be exercised arbitrarily or capriciously.  See, Miami-Dade County v. Church and Tower, Inc., 715 So. 2d 1084, 1088 (Fla. 3d DCA 1998). “The exercise of discretion must be based on facts tending to support the conclusions reached . . . .” Id. The “hearing officer’s sole responsibility is to ascertain whether the agency acted fraudulently, arbitrarily, illegally or dishonestly.” Dep’t of Transp. V. Groves-Watkins Constructors, 530 So. 2d 912, 913 (Fla. 1988).

Gazitua Letelier’s Miami bid protest lawyer is experienced in prosecuting and defending bid protests and legal disputes before the governments of Greater Miami and specializing in Miami Dade County Bid Protest.  These matters require persuasiveness to take corrective action that remedies any injustice against our clients, either by securing an award or by maintaining a contract that would have been lost but for a protest.  In every instance, our clients have defended their rights to compete fairly for procurements.