This is not a new thing and not brought about by the pilots bill of rights. The appeal to the US court of appeals is written in the order and has been for years (not one of the recent changes), so be default, it has nothing to do with the PBR. The reason you may have referenced the PBR is that it's IN the PBR bill from congress, but it was even in the old FAA Order from 1997, it's been there all along, so nothing new. If a lawyer didn't know this existed, they are being paid too much This does not exist because the NTSB has ruled in favor of the FAA, rather, the NTSB has "torn the FAA a new one" on many occasions in court, making them drop the entire case on technicalities and little things when the FAA was convinced their case was "solid".