The department offered little information about the ruling but in a statement said its purpose was to: “Ensure that coal miners have full access to information about their health and to enhance the accuracy of entitlement determinations”

The full proposal is set for release in January 2015.

John Cline, one of the lawyers who regularly represented miners in federal black lung benefits cases, called the department’s announcement “a big step and an important step”

The announcement comes after the Center for Public Integrity detailed a prominent law firm’s decades-long record of keeping key evidence from sick miners in a recent article.

The CPI story was the first instalment in a series titled “Breathless and Burdened”, based on a year-long investigation into the role of lawyers and doctors working on behalf of the coal industry to disprove miners’ claims.

It found that Jackson Kelly lawyers, the industry’s go-to law firm for black lung benefits cases, had withheld evidence for decades, indicating that miners whose cases they were contesting had the disease.

In court records, Jackson Kelly attorneys argued that they had no obligation to disclose reports by doctors that didn’t support their case.

Miners’ lawyers argued that the firm’s approach amounted to misleading judges and the firm’s other consulting doctors.