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• Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ)

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ) is an independent office in the Office of the Administrator of the EPA. The Administrative Law Judges conduct hearings and render decisions in proceedings between the EPA and persons, businesses, government entities, and other organizations which are or are alleged to be regulated under environmental laws. Administrative Law Judges preside in enforcement and permit proceedings in accordance with the Administrative Procedure Act. Most enforcement actions initiated by the EPA are for the assessment of civil penalties.

All litigants are offered the opportunity to resolve enforcement cases through Alternative Dispute Resolution, with an Administrative Law Judge serving as a neutral, prior to assignment of the case for litigation before another Administrative Law Judge.

Federal administrative law judges are certified by the Office of Personnel Management and appointed in accordance with 5 U.S.C. § 3105. They have decisional independence pursuant to Section 557 of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 557, which ensures the fair and impartial resolution of proceedings.

Decisions issued by the Administrative Law Judges are subject to review by the Environmental Appeals Board (EAB). The Administrative Law Judge's initial decision, which is a disposition of all of the issues in a proceeding, becomes the final order of the EPA within 45 days after service upon the parties unless a party appeals to the EAB or the EAB on its own initiative elects to review the initial decision.

OALJ has issued a Practice Manual (PDF) (45 pp, 399K, About PDF Files) that serves as a guide to the procedural rules and practices in proceedings before the Administrative Law Judges.

OALJ has developed a Citizen's Guide (PDF) (44 pp, 1.3Mb, About PDF Files) that provides an overview and procedural guide to individuals and organizations who are not represented by counsel in a proceeding before the Administrative Law Judges. It is organized differently than the Practice Manual, available above, and includes templates for common motions, contact information for each Regional Office, and background information for each type of case that comes before this office. The Citizen's Guide is available in Spanish (Guìa del Ciudadano (PDF)) (44 pp, 2.3Mb, About PDF Files).

Our office is open to accept documents submitted by hand, U.S. Postal Service, or commercial courier between the hours of 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM, Monday - Friday. For documents submitted through those means, the inked datestamp physically applied by this office serves as the official date and time of filing. Any document received by those means after 4:30 PM may be treated as having been filed the next business day.

When mailing correspondence or documents to OALJ, please note that our physical address is different from the address at which we receive mail from the U.S. Postal Service.

 

You will need Adobe Reader to view some of the files on this page. See EPA's PDF page to learn more.

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