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24-1081·BLACK LUNG

Jewell Smokeless Coal Corporation v. DOWCP

Status
  1. Scheduled
  2. Argued (current)
  3. Opinion Issued
Question Presented

Whether any error in ALJ's calculation of years of employment was harmless; propriety of ALJ's assessment of medical opinion evidence; other issues.

Argument Date
May 7, 2026
Argument Time
9:30 a.m.
Panel
II
Courtroom
Butzner Courtroom (Room 201)

Panel

Judge Niemeyer
Judge Harris
Judge Berner

Citation

CaseJewell Smokeless Coal Corporation v. DOWCP, No. 24-1081 (4th Cir. argued May 7, 2026)
PanelNiemeyer, Harris & Berner, JJ.

Arguing Counsel

Panel That Day

1 of 3 cases argued May 7, 2026 before this panel have been decided.

Authorship Outlook

2 opinions remain pending on this panel day. The remaining opinions could come from any panelist who hasn't already been credited with a sibling.

1 of the 3 opinions from this panel has been decided.

This is a statistical guess based on prior sittings in this dataset, not a prediction of the ruling.

Predicted Opinion Release

Likely between November 3, 2026 and June 27, 2027, with December 13, 2026 the most likely date.

Argued 174 days ago. About 83% of comparable cases would have an opinion by now — this one is trending late.

■ ■ ■Calibrated from a deep history (22 prior subject cases + 6 prior panel cases)

80% predictive interval from a log-logistic accelerated-failure-time model fit on 2,134 prior decided cases plus 111 currently-pending cases as right-censored evidence. Updates as days pass with no opinion. How this is calculated →

Oral Argument Audio