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By Posted on Posted in Almaraz / Guzman, Case Law, Ogilvie, PDRater, Permanent Disability Rating Schedule, Workers Compensation Resources Tagged with , , , , , ,
Sep
3
2009
The Board is back!
The Board is back!

Need a FREE sample Ogilvie analysis brief complete with citations?

The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board is back with their en banc decisions on Ogilvie and Almaraz/Guzman after reconsideration. 1  Download the Ogilvie/Almaraz/Guzman decisions all in one place:

Each of these four is about 50 pages.  Read them carefully, there will be a test later.

  1. Photo courtesy of arturodonate [↩]

By Posted on Posted in Author, Blogging, PDRater, Road Warrior Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Sep
3
2009
To sleep, perchance to dream
To sleep, perchance to dream

And my dream is to do four walk through settlements at three different WCAB district offices in one single day.12

I’ve given this a lot of thought and I even have a plan as to how to get this done.  If I ever got the chance to do four walk throughs at four Boards in one day, I’d do it like this:

  1. Get up early, arrive at the Santa Rosa WCAB at 8:00 AM and attempt the first walk through
  2. Head to San Francisco over the Golden Gate for the second walk through
  3. In the afternoon, do the third walk-through in San Jose
  4. Hit the road for Oakland and do the fourth walk through
  5. According to Google Maps, that’s 234 miles and 4 hours and 26 minutes

I honestly don’t even know if this is possible. 3 There are a million things that could go wrong.  I could hit traffic, I could be missing a page from a benefits printout, someone could change their mind about the settlement, a doctor could issue a supplemental report.  I also know that I would need a LOT of things to go right.  Here’s my tentative checklist:

  1. Four walk through settlements ready to be approved at four different Boards (this is easily the toughest part)
  2. Four claims examiners standing by on speed dial
  3. One full calendar day
  4. A fully charged GPS, two fully charged cell phones
  5. A full tank of gas
  6. $55.00 or so ($10 for bridge tolls, about $5 for photocopies, and easily another $40 for parking)
  7. A bag of snacks (I’m probably not going to have time for lunch)
  8. Call ahead to all of the Boards to make sure I can do a walk through that day
  9. The good will and cooperation of the Board staff and my colleagues

However, having done two walk through settlements in a single morning gives me hope.

  1. Photo courtesy of robertrice [↩]
  2. I told this dream to a co-worker yesterday and he laughed and called me a nerd.  Pssh – tell me something I don’t know, Steve. [↩]
  3. Perhaps this might be easier in Southern California – there’s as many as seven Boards within about 15 or 20 miles of one another. [↩]

By Posted on Posted in Author, Calculators, Design, PDRater, Subscription Features, Technobabble, User Interface, Website Updates Tagged with , , , , , , , ,
Sep
1
2009
Dont worry, its not your fault
Don't worry, its not your fault

Yesterday I received an e-mail from a beta tester, Jeff Duarte, who was having trouble with one of my calculators.  He said that he didn’t really understand how to use a particular calculator.  My response was:

The problem is not you, its me.  :)  If I designed my calculator better you wouldn’t have any questions.

Seriously – sorry Jeff, its my bad.  My goal is to make these calculators so easy and intuitive to use that no workers’ compensation professional would have any trouble figuring out how to use them.  If you don’t figure out how to use it just by looking at it, I designed it wrong. 1 Getting feedback is a very important and instructive process for me.  It lets me figure out what works for people and what doesn’t.

The good news is that Jeff”s suggestions have given me an idea on how to make two calculators easier to use and for two entirely new features!

So, send me an e-mail if you have an idea on how I can make a calculator more intuitive, easier to use, or just plain work better!

The problem is not you, its me.  :)  If I designed my calculator better you wouldn’t have any questions!
  1. Photo courtesy of TreMichLan.  Terrible pun – all me! [↩]

By Posted on Posted in Author, Calculators, Cell Phones, PDRater, Workers Compensation Resources Tagged with , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Aug
31
2009
Theres nothing silly about Verify!(R)
There's nothing silly about Verify!®

A few weeks ago I launched a Social Security Number verification tool powered by Verify!®.  Since its launch its become a very popular tool.  One of the coolest things about having these calculators is finding out all of the new ways people think of to use them.  These new and unintended uses are almost always far more interesting than the original pedestrian reasons for which a tool was created.

Take Silly Putty for instance.  Silly Putty was originally created as a potential replacement for rubber during World War II.  It didn’t work as a replacement for rubber, scientists were unable to think of a use for it, and it sat in a lab for years before a toy store owner began stuffing it in plastic eggs.1

Here are a few ideas:

  1. Use it to determine whether someone is a U.S. citizen.
  2. Use it to double-check someone’s year of birth.
  3. Use it to determine approximately when someone became a U.S. citizen.2
  4. Use it to determine whether someone is potentially Medicare eligible.3

What other uses can you think of?

  1. Photo courtesy of unloveablesteve [↩]
  2. I thought of this one during a deposition last week when a deponent couldn’t recall when they first came to the United States.  I just fired up the cell phone web browser, went to the calculator page, and asked the follow up question. [↩]
  3. Thanks Chris! [↩]