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.

5,593 decisions and counting · Latest decision July 17, 2026

2 decisions 29 C.F.R. § 1910.141(b)(1)(vi)

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COMM

Dawson Welltech, L.C. Rig #387

Commission approves an oil-rig settlement, with one stair-guardrail item tied to a pending Fifth Circuit case

Dawson Welltech operated a workover oil rig (Rig #387) at a well site near Lamar, Texas. After a 1993 OSHA inspection, the company was cited for guardrail, sanitation, bloodborne-pathogen, hazard-communication, and ladder items across two citations. Administrative Law Judge Louis G. LaVecchia…

February 21, 1996
Settled

ALJ

Patterson Drilling Company, Inc.

Bloodborne-pathogen citations vacated for an oil-field drilling crew

Patterson Drilling Company ran a horizontal drilling rig at a site south of Gonzales, Texas. OSHA inspected after a February 1993 accident in which falling equipment caused a fatal crushing injury to a worker. The agency issued a serious citation with eight items and an "other" citation with two…

July 11, 1994 ·Stanley M. Schwartz
Mixed result

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review, an ALJ decision becomes a final order under 29 U.S.C. § 661(j): it binds the parties in that case but is not binding precedent in other cases.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.

Browse decisions by cited standard

OSHA standards

29 U.S.C. § 654(a)(1) (477) 29 C.F.R. § 1926.500(d)(1) (216) 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(a)(1) (208) 29 C.F.R. § 1926.28(a) (178) 29 C.F.R. § 1910.132(a) (171) 29 C.F.R. § 1926.21(b)(2) (158) 29 C.F.R. § 1910.212(a)(1) (137) 29 C.F.R. § 1926.105(a) (130) 29 C.F.R. § 1926.501(b)(1) (113) 29 C.F.R. § 1926.100(a) (110) 29 C.F.R. § 1910.212(a)(3)(ii) (99) 29 C.F.R. § 1926.652(b) (94)

MSHA standards

30 U.S.C. § 815(a) (250) 30 U.S.C. § 820(i) (87) 30 U.S.C. § 815(c)(2) (65) 30 U.S.C. § 815(d) (54) 29 C.F.R. § 2700.1(b) (51) 30 U.S.C. § 815(c)(1) (50) 30 U.S.C. § 823(d)(1) (48) 30 U.S.C. § 820(k) (41) 30 U.S.C. § 823(d)(2)(A)(i) (39) 29 C.F.R. § 2700.28 (33) 30 U.S.C. § 814(d)(1) (30) 30 U.S.C. § 815(c)(3) (26)