Civil Penalties Dockets & Decisions Data Set

Description:

The Civil Penalties Dockets and Decisions data set contains information about civil penalty cases that fall into two categories:

• Ongoing litigation – Cases in which no final order has been entered by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) or the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (the Commission).  Also includes cases in which no settlement has been approved by an ALJ or the Commission.
• Resolved cases – Cases that have received a final decision or settlement approval from an ALJ or the Commission. 

Links:

• Download (in text format)
• Definition File
• Definition File (in excel format)

Date Range:

January 1, 2000, to present

What’s in the Data Set:

• Cases in litigation - (i.e., contests of MSHA’s proposed civil penalty assessments) 
• Final civil penalty assessment orders or approved settlements by an ALJ or the Commission
• Proposed civil penalty assessments
  • Proposed civil penalty assessments are calculated using criteria established in the Mine Act, including the size of the business, the operator’s history of previous violations, the operator’s degree of negligence,  the gravity of the violation, the operator’s good faith effort to achieve compliance,  and the effect of the penalty on the operator’s ability to continue in business
• Final Civil Penalty Assessments as Ordered by an ALJ or the Commission
  • If an ALJ or the Commission has rendered a final order on a civil penalty assessment, the data set also includes the final penalty assessment
• Grouped Violations – Assessment Cases
  • Violations that occur at a specific mine and are tied to a specific operator (such as a production operator or independent contractor) are grouped together into what’s called an Assessment Case. These cases are billing statements that list multiple violations.

Notes:

•  The data set does not include discrimination, corporate agent, or miner (i.e., smoking) dockets.
•  An assessment case can be linked to one or more docket numbers.
• The Commission assigns a unique docket number (DOCKET_NO) to a group of contested civil penalty assessments.

Contact

For questions, please contact the MSHA Data Group.