Federal agency decisions, searchable in plain English.
Workplace-safety cases from the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) and mine-safety cases from the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC), each with a plain-English summary, the standards it cites, and whether it counts as precedent. More agencies are coming.
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Kesler and Sons Construction Company
Premature failure-to-abate penalties reversed
Kesler and Sons performed sewer construction and received a citation requiring immediate correction of several conditions. OSHA reinspected the site before the employer's 15-working-day period for deciding whether to contest had expired and then issued additional failure-to-abate penalties. The…
Hidden Valley Corporation of Virginia
Trench citation affirmed and penalty raised to $1,000
Hidden Valley required employees to work in an approximately nine-foot-deep sewer trench whose sides were neither shored nor sloped. The trench collapsed and killed an employee and another person. Because the specific construction standard was not yet applicable to this employer, OSHA cited the…
What these documents are
- Commission decisions: Rulings by the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission itself, the highest level of agency review. These are citable as Commission precedent, though a decision may have been appealed to a U.S. Court of Appeals after issuance.
- ALJ decisions: Rulings by OSHRC Administrative Law Judges after a hearing. When no Commissioner directs review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.
- Why finality matters: Every page here says which kind of decision you are reading, so you know whether it is precedent you can cite or a final order that only shows how one judge ruled on one set of facts.
- Where they come from: Every page links the official OSHRC public release, and the full text on the page is that release. The plain-English summaries are written by Ezel.