OALJ Case Number Field: The OALJ case number has three components: (1) the Fiscal Year in which the case was docketed, (2) a three letter acronym that indicates the type of case, and (3) the sequential number of the filing. For example, 2005-BLA-00011 would be the eleventh black lung
case filed in Fiscal Year 2005.
In the search fields:
- Use the full year for the Fiscal Year field (i.e., 2005 instead of 05). Note that Fiscal Years
for the federal government begin on October 1, rather than January 1 as in a calendar year.
- For the Case Type Acronym field, select a case type either using the pull-down box or by typing the first character of the case type until the correct acronym appears. For example,
typing s four times will place SOX (Sarbanes-Oxley) cases in this field. Only the first letter is recognized. Thus, typing s o x will not work.
- Use zeros in front of the sequential number of the case (i.e., 00011 instead of 11). To get a list of all cases for a Fiscal Year
for a particular case type, use the first two fields (Fiscal Year and Case Type Acronym), but leave the sequential number field
blank, and then hit enter or click on the go button.
Claimant/Complainant Field:
In this field you may use any part of the name -- first, last or full name. Do not separate names by commas. For example, use Smith John rather than Smith, John.
Because of the way information is entered into the DMS docket card, you may need to try both the Claimant/Complainant and Employer/Respondent fields. For alien labor certification cases, use the Claimant/Complainant field to search by name of the alien.
Employer/Respondent Field:
In this field you may use any part of the name -- first, last or full name. Because of the way
information is entered into the DMS docket card, you may need to try both the Claimant/Complainant and Employer/Respondent
fields.
Date Field:
In this field you must enter the search date exactly in this format: mm/dd/yyyy. For example, to search for cases decided on November 1, 2000, enter 11/01/2000.
Search Results Page:
DMS search returns a page showing search results. Users can re-sort the results by the categories shown at the top of each column. If the Decision Date field is blank,
the case is still pending. If the "DMS File" column says "NO" that means that there is no electronic document available in DMS for that case. This is usually because
the case was decided prior to OALJ's DMS implementation, or because the document is under a protective order or otherwise FOIA exempt. You might be able to find older decisions
by browsing the ca selists in the law library part of the web site or by using a full-text search.
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