The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia has dismissed a challenge to the Department of Labor's authority to require reports from attorneys who make payments to unions or union officials, the department announced.

The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) requires employers to file reports if, among other things, they provide money or other things of value to a union or a union officer or employee.

In this case, Warshauer v. Chao, an attorney who had been appointed as a designated legal counsel by the United Transportation Union (UTU) sued to prevent the secretary of labor from requiring him to file a Form LM-10 (Employer Report). Designated legal counsel is a lawyer recommended by a union to its members for representation in workers' compensation, personal injury, or other matters.

The attorney challenged certain advisories that the department's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS) had issued in 2005 and 2006 to provide guidance on Form LM-10 reporting requirements. These included advisories stating that designated legal counsel who make certain payments must file Form LM-10 reporting the payments. The advisories also provided guidance that payments of $250 or less need not be reported.

The advisory stated that designated legal counsel must file a Form LM-10 reporting payments from the lawyer to the union or its officials because union members have a right to evaluate whether a lawyer's presence on a list of designated legal counsel is based on merit rather than a financial relationship between the lawyer and union officials.

The court held that the website advisories were interpretative guidance not subject to the notice and comment rulemaking requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act as the plaintiff had argued.