New 2010 Schedule Loss of Use Proposed Decisions: Idea! - why don't we (the WCB) increase the amount of depositions in some of the most easily resolved cases at the New York State Workers" Compensation Board? That will be our legacy! 

So now the Workers' Compensation Board, without any input from either claimant or defense lawyers who are "in the trenches" each day making the system work despite the unnecessary hurdles invented by a "Park Street Albany" cabal, wants to throw another rock in the gears of justice.

The new Proposed SLU Decisions take away the ability of Workers' Compensation Compensation Law Judges (WCLJ's) to "knock heads" and broker  fair settlements between the parties, which is the standard in most judicial and administrative adjudicatory systems across the US. The new procedure essentially says: settle directly with the insurance company claims adjuster without court intervention, or you have no choice but to proceed to the time consuming and costly deposition process. 

The deposition process before the New York Workers' Compensation Board is widely accepted as an utter failure, hence the need for deposition regulations which are yet to be promulgated.  In addition, depositions in SLU cases often times produce wildly unfair decisions (both for claimants and insurance carriers) due to the vagaries of medical opinion and the testimonial competence of the doctor being deposed.

For example, under current Board practice, if a claimant produces an SLU report giving a 25% loss of use of an arm, and the insurance carrier produces a report indicating a 10% loss of use of an arm, the Workers' Compensation Law Judge must choose one finding or the other, even if the Judge believes that a percentage between the two numbers would be a more fair result.

Given the new maximum workers' compensation rate effective 7/1/2010 of $739.83 per week, the difference in cash benefits between these two easily bridged (before a WCLJ) extremes is approximately a  whopping $34,000!  Therefore, if the claimant's doctor cannot make himself available for a deposition due to medical emergency, the claimant will get almost $34,000 less! 

Not only is this assembly line appoach inefficient, it is unfair to all parties and capable of producing absurd results. But then again, we are currently under the reign of Albany bureaucrats who are desperate for a "legacy" of reform (or deform) prior to the November elections, when many will be washed out to sea.