Instructions for Electronic Filing

Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission

Instructions for Electronic Filing

Effective April 28, 2014, all electronic filing must be done through the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission’s electronic Case Management System (e-CMS). In order to use the system, you must register at https://fmshrc-ecms.entellitrak.com. If you need assistance, please email: e-CMS.Support@fmshrc.gov.

Please adhere to the following instructions when filing documents through e-CMS:

• Do not file additional copies via fax, the U.S. Postal Service, or courier.

• File settlement motions and proposed settlement orders separately. Settlement motions must be filed as PDF documents, and proposed settlement orders must be filed as Word documents.

• File all documents separately. For example, a “Motion to Accept Late-Filed Penalty Petition” must be filed separately from the accompanying Petition for Assessment of Civil Penalty.

• File a certificate of service with each document, if applicable.

• Name each document in this manner: Title of document/ Docket Number. If there are multiple dockets, include only the first docket listed in the caption followed by “et al.” The total number of characters must be less than 40, so the title (rather than the docket number) should be abbreviated as necessary. NOTE: You only need to file a document once. The docket office will file the document in the other consolidated cases.

• Immediately re-file any rejected document through e-CMS pursuant to the instructions provided to you by the Docket Office clerk. If it is rejected again, contact the Docket Office for further assistance at 202-434-9950.

Electronic Notification

When filing documents through e-CMS, you will receive any of the following three types of email notifications.

1.  File successfully uploaded.  After you upload a document with e-CMS, you will receive an automatic email informing you that your document was successfully uploaded to the system and is pending review.  As soon as the review is completed, you will receive another notification by email, which will inform you that the document was either successfully received or rejected.

2.  FMSHRC document successfully received.  The Commission successfully receives a document on the date of uploading if there were no errors in the submission of the document. 

• Submission errors include, but are not limited to, incorrect docket numbers and failure to upload the document intended for filing.

If there were no errors in the submission of your document, you will receive an email informing you that your document was successfully received.  In these circumstances, you should consider the date of successful receipt by the Commission to be the date that you initially successfully uploaded the document.

For example:  A party uploads a file at 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18, 2014.  The party receives an email stating that the file was successfully uploaded.  The Commission’s Docket Office staff comes in the next day, and logs into the e-CMS system at 8:45 a.m., seeing that the file was uploaded at 6:15 p.m. the prior evening and that there were no errors in the submission of the document.  The Docket Office employee is not able to send an email to the party until the next day, Thursday, March 20, 2014.  The party receives an email on March 20, 2014, stating that the party’s document was successfully received.  The date of successful receipt by the Commission is March 18, 2014.

3.  FMSHRC document rejected.  When you have uploaded a document but have made errors in your submission, you will receive an email informing you that your document has been rejected.  The email will describe the error that you have made.  In order to have your document successfully received, you will have to upload the document again and correct your error.