Railroad Commission Adds Multiple Features to CASES Portal

System Now Processes All Hearing Cases, Allows for Penalty Payments

AUSTIN – The Railroad Commission continues to enhance its online services, this time by adding more information and enhanced features in its CASES online portal.

The CASES portal – which stands for Case Administration Service Electronic System – has begun to process all Railroad Commission hearings and enforcement case types. The updated system now handles dockets from the agency’s Oil and Gas Division, Oversight and Safety Division, and the Surface Mining and Reclamation Division. When the first phase of the RRC CASES portal launched in March, it processed a smaller number of case types originating from the Oil and Gas Division.

With more documents now readily accessible to the public than ever before, the Railroad Commission has been able to further expand the transparency of its functions, decrease reliance on paper record, and streamline agency processes such as open records requests. Once documents are approved for digital filing, they are available for the public to view.

RRC CASES has also helped the agency’s Hearings Division adapt to the current COVID-19 pandemic because it allows Administrative Law Judges and Technical Examiners to access dockets in CASES without having to retrieve a hard copy file.

“The CASES online portal is part of an ongoing effort to modernize operations at the Railroad Commission,” said Wei Wang, RRC Executive Director.

“CASES not only makes our hearings documents available for anyone to view, but it also makes it easier for operators to submit case files electronically. As public servants, we strive to serve the public better, and CASES is a digital tool that helps us do just that.”

Parties to a case or their representatives can save time and money by filing electronically through CASES. Legal Enforcement dockets can be viewed by the public and authenticated users can also upload or download files to the docket. Also, the updated CASES system now allows entities to pay administrative penalties via the portal.

Additionally, the Railroad Commission increased the file upload capacity to 15 gigabytes of data instead of the previous limit of 8 gigabytes.

Parties involved in a case or docket will need to register as an authenticated user to file electronically in RRC CASES. To become an authenticated user, you must submit the CASES Portal Authenticated User Form to the agency’s Information Technology Services Division.

For more information, visit the RRC CASES page.