The Department of Labor (DOL) Office of Administrative Law Judges (OALJ) is contemplating

to seek potential sources capable of providing the services described below:

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES
Interested Offerors will be required to provide lawyer writers to draft proposed decisions and
orders and/or recommendations in the form of decisions and orders addressing all factual and
legal issues involved in Black Lung cases before OALJ Administrative Law Judges including
those remanded from the Benefits Review Board or a Federal court. The lawyer writer will be
required to modify or amend the draft after the submission of the initial draft to the presiding
Judge if requested (occurs on average over 70 % of the time).
OALJ has a contemplated need for lawyer writers, at the following places of performance:
Cincinnati District Office
Pittsburgh District Office
Cherry Hill District Office
National Office

- 5-10 writers
- 4-8 writers
- 5-10 writers
- 8-15 writers

The Black Lung Benefits Act, 30 U.S.C. 901 et seq., as amended (Act), and implementing
regulations, 20 C.F.R. Parts 718, and 725 (Regulations), provide compensation and other
benefits to:
1. Living coal miners who are totally disabled due to pneumoconiosis and their
dependents. Pneumoconiosis is a disease of the lung s arising from coal mine
employment and is commonly known as Black Lung Disease;
2. Surviving dependents of coal miners whose death was due to pneumoconiosis; and,
3. Surviving dependents of coal miners who were totally disabled due to
pneumoconiosis at the time of their death.
While the Act and regulations appear to present a straight-forward regulatory program to be used
to determine whether or not benefits will or will not be awarded to claimants, the various
decisions and orders of the Benefits Review Board, U.S. Department of Labor, and the Circuit
Courts of Appeals of the United States, have established a complex overylay of federal commonlaw.
Note:

The Government contemplates awarding multiple- award contracts.

Lawyer writers will be assigned to a specific judges docket.
Lawyer writers will be paid a fixed price per case only after the decision is issued.
All Lawyers Writers should have required skills sets and experience in the Black Lung
program area.
Work is envisioned to be performed at the Lawyer writers home/office and not at a
government site.

The typical Lawyer writer is expected to carry a workload of 5-8 concurrent cases.
Additional workload is available if requested by the writer.
To ensure there are no conflicts of interests, all lawyer writers must provide a signed,
sworn statement that they are not currently practicing or participating in Black Lung case
litigation before the U.S. Department of Labor, and Lawyer Writers will continue to not
be involved in Black Lung litigation before OALJ, while serving as a writer. The writer
will also agree that the writer will not work on a Black Lung case if the writer
participated or was involved with any prior litigation with that case or the parties in the
case.

Black Lung cases fall into two types: first, those in which there is no responsible operator and
only the Director, Office of Workers' Compensation Programs (Director) remains as the
opposing party, i.e., Directors case and, secondly, those in which there is a responsible
operator opposing the award of benefits and the Director is only a party-in-interest, i.e.,
Responsible Operator (RO) case. The typical Directors case can take eight hours or more to
correctly draft while the average Responsible Operator case may take twenty-four or more hours
depending on ones familiarity with the Black Lung program.
In both types of cases, the contractor will be required to perform a record analysis of the case
which includes: a study of pleadings, testimony, exhibits, hearing transcripts and briefs of
counsel in connection with a determination on the merits of formal cases; a review of the
contested issues and facts; and, an appraisal of the evidence and inferences to be drawn
therefrom. In addition, legal research of applicable statutes, regulations, opinions, legislative
history, and other legal authorities on points of law involved will be required including analysis
and application of such findings to the case at hand. This will be done at the direction of the
presiding Judge.
These cases involve both complex medical and legal issues, thus legal research will be required
to resolve issues including:
a.

Whether the claimant is a coal miner as defined by the Black Lung Benefits Act
and its implementing regulations.

b.

The identity of the responsible operator.

c.

A determination of which Circuits jurisdiction applies.

d.

Whether the claim was timely filed and filed by a proper party.

e.

Legal status of dependents and survivors.

f.

The existence of an employee-employer relationship between the miner and the

identified responsible operator.

g.

The possibility of discrimination against the miner by

his/her employer because of pneumoconiosis.

h.

Whether the presumptions under 20 C.F.R. section 718.305 apply or not.

i.

Resolution of subsequent claims issues, under section 725.309.

j.

Resolution of claims modification issues, under section 725.310, including

whether justice under the Act would be served by consideration of the
modification request.

k.

The existence of pneumoconiosis.

l.

Causal relationship between coal mine employment and pneumoconiosis.

m.

Whether the claimant is totally disabled due to pneumoconiosis.

n.

Pre-trial motions.

o.

Written rulings on the established evidence.

p.

Length of coal mine employment and the nature of the miners usual coal mine
work including the arduousness of the work, i.e., sedentary, medium, heavy, very
heavy labor.

q.

Determine the onset date for the initiation of benefits.

Additionally, the Lawyer Writer shall be able to describe and evaluate the objective medical
testing, including x-ray readings, CT scan readings, PET scan readings, Arterial Blood Gas
studies, and Pulmonary Function Studies, and treatment records and determine whether the
results militate in favor of awarding benefits or not, when viewed in connection with the medical
opinion evidence. The lawyer writer must also be able to evaluate the credibility of each
physicians opinion and describe why or why not they should be credited and to what degree.
Each lawyer writer must demonstrate a command of the English grammar and punctuation. Each
presiding Judges individual preferences for their decision and order may be taken into account
in the case preparation.
The draft shall be submitted in the form of a decision and order delivered either on a CD,
thumb-drive, or by e-mail attachment to the judge and shall be in Microsoft Office 2010
Word format.
NOTE:

Drafts of cases must be of a quality satisfactory to the presiding Judge and the first
draft submitted within 60 days of assignment.
Subsequent drafts and/or the final decision and order must be returned to the
presiding Judge along with the entire paper case file in the same condition as when
it was picked-up within ten (10) business days.

All interested contractors are requested to submit a response providing fixed prices per case
(rough order of magnitude) and demonstrating their capabilities to provide the required services.
As stipulated in FAR 15.201, responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be
accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. No solicitation exists; therefore, do not
request a copy of the solicitation. The decision to solicit for a contract shall be solely within the
Government's discretion.
Contractors responding should indicate their socio economic indicators, i.e., large business, a
small business, a socially and economically disadvantaged business, or a woman owned
business. The NAICS Code to be used for this contemplated acquisition is 541110 with a size
standard of $11.0M, per US SBA Table of Size Standards, www.sba.gov. Respondents are
further requested to indicate their status as a Foreign-owned/Foreign-controlled contractor and
any contemplated use of foreign national employees on this effort.
Any information submitted by respondents to this sources sought synopsis is voluntary. This
sources sought notice is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the
Government reimburse any costs associated with the submission of information in response to
this notice. Respondents will not be individually notified of the results of any government
assessments. The Government's evaluation of the capability statements received will factor into
the Acquisition Strategy, whether any forthcoming solicitation will be conducted as a full and
open competition or as a set-aside for small businesses, or any particular small business
designation (e.g. SDVOSB, HUB Zone, 8(a), SDB, WOSB, VOSB, etc.).