Chapter 3.3. Occupational Safety and Health Appeals Board
Article 1.5. Service of Documents and Duty to Notify Others of Appeal and Hearing

§ 355.5. Form and Size Requirements for Documents Filed with the Appeals Board.

(a) All documents filed with the Appeals Board, whether filed in paper or electronically, shall be filed in accordance with the following standards:

(1) Only one side of each page shall be used;

(2) All margins shall be at least one inch and shall be without typed or handwritten text in any margin;

(3) The first page shall include a case caption that shall include the name and address of the employer, the assigned docket number, and the title of the document;

(4) Documents shall be prepared in a font no less than 12 points in size;

(5) No single document shall exceed 25 pages in length without the prior permission of the Appeals Board, a Presiding Administrative Law Judge, or an Administrative Law Judge who is assigned the case;

(6) Documents shall be double-spaced or one-and-one-half-spaced; however, captions, headings, headers, footnotes, footers and block quotations may be single-spaced;

(7) Paper documents shall be flat, without folds and without staples. Non-conforming submissions may be rejected and returned to the submitter; and

(8) No documents shall contain bar codes, unless those bar codes are added after the document is filed as part of the scanning or document processing procedures initiated by the Appeals Board as a requirement of OASIS.

(b) Electronic document filing shall be in accordance with the following standards:

(1) All electronically filed documents shall be submitted in response to prompts and instructions on the Appeals Board's OASIS website;

(2) Any document that may be filed in an electronic form shall be submitted in PDF/A (Portable Document Format);

(3) With the exception of electronic forms and required attachments, no embedded data shall be allowed in electronically filed documents;

(4) The filing party shall take all reasonable steps to ensure that the filing does not contain computer code, including viruses, that might be harmful to OASIS or to other users of OASIS. Any electronically submitted document that is determined to contain a virus or other potentially harmful computer code may not be processed and may be deleted; and

(5) If it is necessary to submit an electronic document allowed by OASIS, the filing party shall verify the readability of the scanned document before submitting it to OASIS.

(c) Documents successfully filed through OASIS will receive a date- and time-stamped confirmation of successful transmission.

(d) Oversized documents and photographs shall be filed only at the time of hearing.

(e) Printed paper documents shall be printed with black ink on white paper that is 8 1/2 x 11 inches and at least 20 pound weight.

(f) Parties, intervenors, and obligors who are not represented by legal counsel may file legible hand-written documents; however, those documents must comply with subsections (a)(1), (2), (3), (5), (7), and (8).

(g) The document form requirements in this section apply only to those documents prepared by a party, intervenor, obligor, or their representative, and do not apply to documents submitted as evidence at a hearing.

Note: Authority cited: Section 148.7, Labor Code. Reference: Sections 148.7 and 6603, Labor Code.

HISTORY

1. New section filed 8-2-2016; operative 10-1-2016 (Register 2016, No. 32).