8/16/14

"Notice Regarding Public Access to Court Records and Publication of Decisions"

"Except in unusual circumstances, the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Administrative Law Judges ("OALJ") conducts public hearings. 29 C.F.R. § 18.43. Documents filed with OALJ are subject to inspection under the Freedom of Information Act. Decisions and interim orders of general interest are published on the OALJ web site at www.oalj.dol.gov and may be distributed to publishers. See Privacy Act of 1974; Publication of Routine Uses, 67 Fed. Reg. 16815 (2002) (DOL/OALJ-2).

The ALJ may, however, still require the party to file a redacted copy for the public file. The responsibility for redacting these personal identifiers rests solely with counsel and the parties.

In addition to the foregoing, a party should exercise caution when filing documents that contain the following: proprietary or trade secret information

...proprietary or trade secret information

It is the responsibility of counsel and the parties to take appropriate action to seek legal protection of information from public disclosure to the extent that such protection is available under applicable rules. See, e.g., 29 C.F.R. § 18.15 (protective orders); § 18.43(a) (closing of hearing to public); § 18.46 (in camera and protective orders); § 18.56 (restricted access order); 29 C.F.R. § 70.26 (designation of confidential commercial information under FOIA). See also FOIA Update, Vol. XIII, No. 3 , Summer 1992 (DOJ opinion that an ALJ's protective order is not, by itself, a sufficient basis for withholding records under FOIA) (available at http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/foia_updates/Vol_XIII_3/page_3.htm)."

http://www.oalj.dol.gov/ACCESS_TO_COURT_RECORDS.HTM

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