May 17

A practice of filing ISSUES prior to the consideration date has developed among some claimant's attorneys.  Apparently, some claimant's attorneys are anticipating a denial of the claim and with the hope of gaining an early hearing date file Issues almost immediately.  Our system, however, is not designed to accept these early-filed Issues and consequently, they are simply not processed. 

May 17

Please be advised that effective March 1, 2001 the code recognizing availability of attorneys was removed from our computer system. The change was posted on the web page in January 2001.  (CLICK HERE for this notice)   However, due to the large number of letters still being received regarding attorney vacations, it appears that many practitioners are unaware that this change pertains to attorney availability for any reason, including planned vacations.

The agency will no longer be accepting requests that dockets not be set because of attorney vacations. Practitioners will, of course, still have the opportunity to request a continuance of any case, provided the request is filed timely. As mentioned in our earlier notice, this action has been taken to eliminate the difficulties experienced in scheduling dockets due to lack of attorney availability. We are confident that the modification to our system will enable us to more effectively serve the workers' compensation community.

Thank you for your cooperation.