WHAT IF THE REGULATORY
AGENCY MAKES MISTAKES OR PROPOSES A PENALTY THAT IS UNJUST OR TOO HARSH?
VIOLATIONS, SANCTIONS AND CHALLENGES.
Every regulatory agency has a set of sanctions for violating its regulations. For example, FMCSA can issue civil fines and penalties for violation of federal trucking regulations.
FMCSA utilizes a motor carrier’s violation history in calculating its Compliance, Safety, Accountability (CSA) scores and may launch a compliance review of a carrier and determine its safety rating.
What if the regulatory agency makes mistakes or proposes a penalty that is unjust or too harsh? At FMCSA there are two ways to address mistakes:
• Motor carriers can use DataQs to challenge errors made in an inspection or crash report.
• Non-preventable crashes may be removed from FMCSA use and from a driver’s record through the Crash Preventability Determination Program.
A motor carrier must first challenge the legality or harshness of a proposed regulatory penalty within the agency before a court will accept jurisdiction. In legal terms, a person must “exhaust all administrative remedies” before going to court. At FMCSA, the agency’s Rules of Practice lay out those steps.
COMING AND CURRENT REGULATORY PROPOSALS.
Federal regulatory agencies give advance notice of what new regulations they have in mind through the Unified Agenda of Regulatory and Deregulatory Actions. It covers approximately 60 departments, agencies, and commissions, including all federal entities that currently have regulations under development or review.
The timelines for regulatory development shown in the Unified Agenda are estimates. Currently open regulatory dockets are found at
Regulations.gov. People can search by agency (e.g., “FMCSA”), by subject matter (e.g., “hours of service”), or by specific Docket No. (e.g., “FMCSA-2007-27748”). The Federal Register website, is the official publication for government regulations, and conduct a similar search.
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