In Mississippi, when an Alleged Violation Report (AVR) is filed, the enforcement process is to request the alleged violator to respond to the allegation. You will receive a summary of the alleged violation and a request to tell your side of the story. The overwhelming majority of alleged violators do not respond.
That’s odd, because if you don’t tell your side, the story still gets told—just without you in it.
In underground utility enforcement, responding to a request for your side of the story isn’t just a procedural step. The Enforcement Board knows what happened, and they are interested in why it happened. Did the incident reflect negligence, system failure, or something more complex?
When you respond, you provide context that the raw facts alone rarely capture. A damaged line might look like a simple failure to follow the law or safe digging rules, but your response might reveal inaccurate mapping, conflicting locates, unclear markings, time pressures, or communication breakdowns. Without that context, decisions typically lean toward assumption, and assumptions often lean toward fault.
Choosing not to respond doesn’t avoid risk, it underscores it. When the Executive Committee reviews the alleged violations, one of the questions asked is, “Is there a response from the alleged violator?” They want to know what your side of the story is! No response signals you don’t respect the enforcement process. It limits your ability to influence the Committee’s decision and can unintentionally reinforce the idea you don’t care about Mississippi’s dig law.
On the other hand, your response establishes credibility for future interactions with the board and documents your commitment to the process and overall improvement.
Just as important, it creates a record. In an industry where experience is valued, a well-articulated response will create knowledge that others, including the Committee, can learn from, refer to in similar situations, and provide fairer decisions in the future.
So, the real reason to respond isn’t just to “tell your side.” It’s to ensure outcomes reflect reality and to help move Mississippi, even incrementally, from focusing on just what happened, to understanding why it happened.