Category: PDRater

By Posted on Posted in PDRater Tagged with
Sep
13
2021
Welcome to the Constant State of…

This morning the DWC announced emergency regulations 36.7 and 46.2 are being re-adopted for another 90 days.

What does this mean for your practice? It just means everything keeps going, just as “normal” as it has been for the last 18 months or so.

Photo courtesy of marcus eubanks

By Posted on Posted in PDRater Tagged with ,
Sep
8
2021
Big Change.

The DWC issued a seemingly bland Newsline on 8/20/2021 placing the public on notice of a 9/24/2021 public hearing on proposed amendments to Board Regulations 10300 through 10995. Some of these changes are useful, but not that interesting (such as adding or updating some definitions).

You could download and scan through all 32 pages of these regulations… or just check out this list of the interesting parts:

  • § 10745. Setting the Case. The Board may now set order any kind of hearing be conducted electronically on it’s own motion, with or without notice.
  • § 10750. Notice of Hearing. Now notices for hearings will indicate whether they will be held electronically.
  • § 10752. Appearances Required. Represented injured workers are no longer required to appear for mandatory settlement conferences.
  • § 10759. Mandatory Settlement Conferences. Now the parties “shall meet and confer prior to the mandatory settlement conference” and absent resolution file the pre-trial conference statement by the close of the conference.
  • § 10815. Electronic Hearings Before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. If the Board notices an electronic hearing a party may object showing good cause – and it goes to the Presiding Judge to decide.
  • § 10816. Electronic Appearances Before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. A party intending to appear electronically for any hearing not specifically designated as an electronic hearing may file a petition showing good cause pursuant to Board Rule § 10510.
  • § 10817. Electronic Testimony Before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. A witness intending to testify electronically may file a petition showing good cause pursuant to Board Rule § 10510.
  • § 10832. Notices of Intention and Orders after Notices of Intention. Slightly expands a judge’s powers to issue a notice of intent.

What do you suppose these changes signal? Tune in next time for some ideas.

Photo courtesy of “MeMyself&*I“

By Posted on Posted in PDRater
Sep
6
2021

Cheers, friend

You know that feeling when you spend a long weekend working on your website and are finally able to shunt the deuterium from the main cryo-pump to the auxiliary tank and spruce up the worker’s compensation calculators you wrote in 2007?

By Posted on Posted in PDRater Tagged with ,
Aug
31
2021
What in the world is happening?

I suppose could dazzle you with some technobabble about realigning the flux capacitors, but that’s not my style.1 I took down the calculators this past weekend so I could perform some long-overdue upgrades and updates to the entire site.

You know when you take something apart, then put it back together again, and then you’ve got a pile of extra parts and then you have some ‘splainin’ to do? Yeah, this is pretty much exactly that.

I was hoping to have the calculators back online before 2AM on 8/31/2021, but now that the minute hand has started another revolution, this is clearly not happening.

When are they going to be back online? Soon – maybe tonight. But, I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up.

In the meantime, feel free to send me some words of encouragement or let me know what you think about the new layout. If you do send me an email, I’ll let you know as soon as everything’s ready to start cruising at 88 MPH again.

  1. Well, actually now that I think about it, this really is pretty on-brand for me. [↩]