1290-AA26 201210 The Regulatory Plan and the Unified Agenda of Federal Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions 1290 Office of the Secretary OS 1200 Department of Labor DOL Rules of Practice and Procedure for Administrative Hearings Before the Office of Administrative Law Judges The Rules of Practice and Procedure for Administrative Hearings Before the Office of Administrative Law Judges, 29 CFR part 18, subpart A, provide procedural guidance to administrative law judges, claimants, employers, and Department of Labor representatives seeking to resolve disputes under a variety of employment and labor laws. The Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ) promulgated these regulations in 1983. The rules were modeled on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (Federal Rules) and have proved extraordinarily helpful in providing litigants with familiar rules governing hearing procedure. Since 1983, the Federal Rules have been amended many times. Moreover, in 2007 the Federal Rules were given a complete revision to improve style and clarity. The nature of litigation has also changed in the past 27 years, particularly in the areas of discovery and electronic records. Thus, OALJ needs to revise the part 18, subpart A rules to make them more accessible and useful to parties, and to harmonize administrative hearing procedures with the current Federal Rules. Our goal is amending the regulations to provide clarity through the use of consistent terminology, structure, and formatting so that parties have clear direction when pursuing or defending against a claim. In addition to revising the regulations to conform to modern legal procedure, the rules need to be modified to reflect the types of claims now heard by OALJ. When the rules were promulgated in 1983, OALJ primarily adjudicated occupational disease and injury cases. Presently, and looking ahead to the future, OALJ is and will be increasingly tasked with hearing whistleblower and other workplace retaliation claims, in addition to the occupational disease and injury cases. These types of cases require more structured management and oversight by the presiding administrative law judge and more sophisticated motions and discovery procedures than our current regulations provide. In order to best manage the complexities of whistleblower and discrimination claims, OALJ needs to update its rules to address the procedural questions that arise in these cases. Info./Admin./Other Previously Published in The Unified Agenda Proposed Rule Stage Undetermined No 29 CFR 18A 5 USC 553 5 USC 554 5 USC 556 5 USC 557 5 USC 571 et seq No NPRM 12/04/2012 77 FR 72141 NPRM Comment Period End 02/03/2013 No No None No No No Nikkia Wharton 1290 Office of the Secretary OS 202 693-7542 wharton.nikkia@dol.goc 800 K Street NW., Suite 400N, Washington DC 20001-8002