1-21-2019; How Illinois WC Benefits are Delivered and the Role of the IWCC; Kevin Boyle Offers Free IN WC Rate Sheets for 2019 and more

Synopsis: How Illinois WC Benefits are Delivered and the Role of the IWCC.

Editor’s comment: Unlike many states, the delivery of benefits in Illinois workers’ compensation could take place without the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission having any real role in the process—the system is supposedly “self-effectuating” but can be so complicated lawyers are usually involved. The Workers’ Compensation Commission’s current role is to resolve conflicts via litigation, but it does not actively manage or supervise benefit delivery unless someone raises a dispute.

IL Workers’ Compensation Commission’s powers and authority

We like to point out at this early stage the IL Workers’ Compensation Commission is an administrative agency that ostensibly has only those powers given it by our legislature and the Rules Governing Practice, which is also created by an open hearing process and limited in scope. In recent years, we feel the IWCC has expanded its decision-making to claims or WC coverage outside the traditional scope of our WC Act. In other states, the Circuit Courts hear workers’ compensation matters and, in those settings, the judges may have plenary power over the participants on both sides. That doesn’t happen in Illinois’s WC model.

In Illinois, administrators have limitations on their powers and, in limited instances, the aggrieved parties have to go to the Circuit Courts for complete relief. To name a few examples, Illinois Arbitrators are not accorded the power to enforce subpoenas, enter judgments on their awards or hold the parties in contempt as a Circuit Court judge has the power to do. In each instance, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act and Rules require the parties to file a separate lawsuit in the circuit courts to get such relief, consistent with the clear statutory requirements. Very few practitioners know how to do this.

We want to make it clear: if an Arbitrator acts without statutory authority to act, their actions are arguably void and may be collaterally attacked in the Circuit Courts at any time.

The Ostensibly Minimalist Role of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission

When the unforeseen occurs and a worker is injured, Illinois does have two forms that it provides to employers and their insurance carriers or third party administrators called TPA’s to report accidental occurrences. One is the Form 45 or initial report of injury, and the other is the Form 85, the supplementary or final report of injury. What is unusual about these forms is, due in large part to lack of state funding, they are not currently used for any significant statistical or administrative function.

To be more clear, unlike other states, no one currently logs them, nor is there a database which results from the filing of these forms. No IWCC employee generally cross-checks them to insure medical or temporary total disability is being paid on time or in the correct amount. Illinois has moved to allow some carriers and large self-insured companies to perform this routine reporting function electronically. There is no ongoing use of the electronic forms other than to require they be filed.

The delivery system of Illinois workers’ compensation benefits is designed to be self-effectuating—by that we mean the employee is required to demonstrate someone at the employer in a supervisory capacity become aware of the loss within 45 days. When that happens, the Form 45 must be filed at the Workers’ Compensation Commission by the employer, but, as stated above, the Workers’ Compensation Commission will simply file/store this document and will not generally take any action based upon the information outlined on the form. Thereafter, it is contemplated the employer and carrier or TPA will adequately investigate the claim on their own and render a decision with regard to whether WC benefits are owed. If additional time is needed to decide whether benefits are due, the carrier or TPA is supposed to notify the employee in writing of what information is required to render a decision. If the decision is to pay benefits, no one has to be advised of the decision other than the employee; you don’t have to tell the IWCC. If the decision is to deny, there is a rule which requires written notification of denial, but it is often ignored or not widely known.

It is entirely possible to accept a claim, pay medical, temporary disability, and permanent disability, and close the file without notifying the IWCC (other than filing the Form 45). Due to the minimal role of the Commission in active claims management, what may happen at a relatively higher level in Illinois than in most states is litigation. Our  Workers’ Compensation Commission is more like a courthouse for industrial injury claims than an institution which manages compliance, supervises insurance carriers or TPA claims management, as other states do. In an effort to maximize benefits on behalf of claimant and/or due to aggressive petitioners’ lawyers, the ‘typical’ Illinois workers’ compensation claim begins at the IWCC with the filing of an Application for Adjustment of Claim.

The free filing of this single pleading or form by the employee (usually with counsel) is carefully catalogued, indexed, and tracked by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. The claim is randomly assigned to an arbitrator and will pend for up to three years before either side has to take some significant action to resolve it. Subsequent claims by the same employee against the same employer “shall” be consolidated before the Arbitrator assigned the first such claim. Consolidation of claims means they are tried in order but separately—there is a misconception the consolidated claims become blended. A filed WC claim will appear on a status call every ninety days unless an emergency petition is filed by the employee to accelerate the matter to a more rapid hearing.

Claims typically are filed due to a dispute over medical bills or termination of TTD. These claims may move immediately to a hearing because Illinois allows for two emergency interim petitions, a 19(b) or 19(b-1) petition. These petitions will be discussed in greater detail later in this treatise, but it is safe to say that the resolution of these so-called ‘emergency’ claims will render a binding decision on the issues of jurisdiction, accident, causal connection, notice, medical benefits, and temporary disability. It may therefore be critically important to aggressively defend what is ostensibly an interim petition because many of the major legal and factual issues may be determined as part of the resolution of the emergency 19(b) or 19(b-1) petition, leaving only permanency (i.e., the settlement value of the injury) to be later decided.

WC claims adjusters in and out of Illinois are usually amazed that claims are also regularly filed when all benefits are paid in full and on a timely basis solely to maximize the recovery of permanency. For anyone not familiar with the management of Illinois workers’ compensation claims, AMA Impairment guidelines or “ratings” currently play a growing role in reserving awards or payment of permanency. For accidental injuries after September 1, 2011, ratings “shall” be considered by the IWCC along with other factors. Generally speaking, Illinois permanency awards are significantly higher than the percentages which AMA Impairment guidelines call for in most work injuries.

Permanency in Illinois workers’ compensation is also ostensibly handled by a system similar to that of stare decisis—the IWCC publishes its decisions with regard to permanency to provide guidelines for what they will award in similar injuries. Again, it is felt in some quarters that this leaves the determination of permanency at the whim of the Commission’s current members. In any event, it does require the adjuster to watch Commission decisions and to try to use them as guidelines in dealing with petitioners and employers alike.

Resolution of the claim is typically accomplished by settlement. Year after year, approximately 90% of all Illinois workers’ compensation claims are settled at or during arbitration. In most instances, your focus in managing the claim is to position it to settle. Cases can also be resolved by voluntary dismissal, involuntary dismissal for want of prosecution, or on motion by the arbitrator or Commissioner, decision or award by the arbitrator and the Commission and resolution of the claim on appeal to the circuit, appellate or supreme court.

All rights of a claimant in an Illinois workers’ compensation claim are adjudicated solely by the IWCC or by the passing of the statute of limitations. If you pay benefits and do not have the matter resolved by settlement at the Commission, you usually get ‘credit’ for amounts paid prior to litigation, but the claim remains ‘open’ or viable until the statute of limitations passes.

If an Application for Adjustment of Claim is later filed, it is possible a petitioner could subsequently seek higher benefits and protect his or her right to lifetime related medical benefits at the cost of the employer. For this reason, many claims managers feel it prudent to resolve a claim via a pro se settlement, which is approved by the Commission. In this setting, the arbitrator usually provides an oversight function to insure a petitioner appearing pro se (or without counsel) is accurately advised with regard to their rights and receives a fair amount in settlement of the claim.

Having filed the Application for Adjustment of Claim, the matter is assigned to an arbitrator for hearing. Assuming a settlement does not occur, at some point the matter will have to be presented to the arbitrator for hearing. Prior to that point, pre-trial discovery in Illinois workers’ compensation is very limited.

Have Your Own Accident Reports and Combine with a HIPAA-GINA Compliant Release

Most employers require employees fill out accident reports when an employee is injured. We strongly recommend this practice to our defense clients and do not recommend you rely upon the IL WC Form 45 for accident information. If you get to the employee before he or she gets to counsel, it is possible to obtain a recorded statement. If the employee refuses and the matter becomes litigated, there is no legal device in the IL WC system to force the employee to give a recorded statement. The injured worker does not have to submit to a deposition under oath as they do in some states.

As we will discuss later, you can request medical records with a HIPAA-GINA complaint authorization or by subpoena. Workers’ compensation subpoenas are frequently used inappropriately by some petitioners’ attorneys. If you want my form for your use and/or consideration, send a reply.

The employer has the right, at its expense, to obtain an independent medical examination of petitioner at any time. Again, this will be discussed in more detail at a later time.  Petitioner may rely both on the treating doctors and his own independent medical examiner.

Medical testimony of either a treating physician or independent medical examiner is generally provided to the arbitrator by evidence deposition. It remains an open question as to who has to pay for the depositions of treating physicians. The 2005 changes to the IL WC Act made treating records of treating physicians admissible in the majority of cases.

Medical depositions provide the expert opinions which the arbitrators sometimes rely upon in reaching medical conclusions. There is no requirement for expert medical opinions for the Commission to make a finding on a medical issue, but generally they do review all medical reports or depositions.

The hearing before the arbitrator is generally conducted in a streamlined fashion with the parties stipulating to all factual issues not in dispute. There is a “request for hearing” form that contains those stipulations and which the parties are required to fill out. Failure to stipulate to an undisputed or uncontested matter may result in an award of penalties and attorneys’ fees. Testimony is not taken on issues which are uncontested.

This is a starting point and the devil is in the details. If you have further questions or concerns, send a reply. I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Please post them on our award-winning blog.

Synopsis: Get your handy and updated 2019 Indiana Rate Chart Here. Research and reporting by Kevin Boyle, J.D., KCB&A’s Indiana WC defense team leader and Gene Keefe, J.D.

Editor’s comment: A new year, and our new 2019 Indiana WC Rate Chart is available. You can find it on our website, or if you’d like a laminated hard copy, please email Kevin and he’ll mail you as many as you and your staff need.  Happy New Year!  

Kevin Boyle, Esq., Keefe, Campbell, Biery & Assocs., LLC

885 South College Mall Rd. #222

Bloomington, IN 47401

Direct: 312.662.9899

Alternate: 812.369.7182

Email:  kboyle@keefe-law.com

1-14-2019; Here is My Thought For Our New IL Governor--Run State Gov't Like a Hyatt Hotel!!!; Litigious City of Chicago Worker Gets Lots of WC Benefits 13 Years Post-Injury and more

Synopsis: Hey, New Governor Pritzker--Run IL State Gov’t Like a Hyatt Hotel!!

Editor’s comment: Today, January 14, 2019, J.B. Pritzker was sworn in as the new Governor of Illinois. Our State has the fifth highest population of the entire U.S. We also have the wealthiest Governor in U.S. history, I think.

New Gov. Pritzker is dropping some hints about what’s likely to be in his first state budget, but the governor-elect still isn’t committing to much definite except giving full details in his upcoming February 2019 speech. In an interview, Pritzker said his spending plan will be balanced and indicated he wants it passed on time by late spring.

One thing that won’t be in the budget is an ersatz version of the graduated income tax, one that raises our tax rates but then eliminates them for many lower-income taxpayers by sharply increasing deductions. Pritzker appeared to be leaning in that direction earlier, suggesting it would be a good way to pursue change before a needed constitutional amendment authorizing a graduated tax can be implemented.

Instead, the Gov’s budget likely will rely on revenues from taxes on legalizing the recreational sale of marijuana products, expanded legal gambling and sports betting. To me, the most intriguing statement is the new Governor’s statement “efficiencies in state government” will be part of the “balanced budget” package.

If You Want Gov’t Efficiency, Consider Running State Gov’t Like a Private Company!!!

Please note IL State Gov’t has 88 State agencies. We need about 20. We have amazing and almost record redundancy in these many agencies. When you have 88 agencies, you have 88 Agency Heads and 88 Ass’t Agency Heads and 88 HR managers and basically 88 everythings. Judy Baar Topinka, rest her soul, pointed out the IL State Treasurer and the IL State Comptroller are essentially the same agency—they were created back in the day to effectively watch each other spend our money. To combine those agencies would probably save $10M in a fell swoop. Similarly, why is there an IL Dep’t of Transportation and the IL Toll Authority? Don’t they clearly do precisely the same thing for toll and non-tool roads? Please also note the State of IL has seven, count ‘em, seven State Police Departments!!! Couldn’t all those cops be combined in the IL State Police? What does the Secretary of State Police Department do anyway?

In my view, State workers are over-paid, over-staffed and “over-retired.” We have the highest paid prison/correction guards in the U.S. In rural Pontiac, IL, www.indeed.com indicates our IL corrections officers’ pay is 44% over the national average. Almost all IL State workers make more than the national average for their jobs, regardless of how rural the area they are working in might be. The Springfield Journal-Register confirmed there are almost 75,000 Illinois State workers and their total payroll is around $4.5B dollars!!

Please remember all of such workers are entitled to the gigantic fake gov’t pension program which pays retiring workers 85% of their highest salaries along with 3% compounded annual increases and virtually free medical coverage until they finally pass! As I have repeatedly reported, these fake gov’t pension and healthcare benefits are currently $200B in debt and that amount is going up by the millions each minute of every day. One way to cut that future debt is to trim unneeded gov’t jobs.

Please JB, Automate Thousands of State Jobs!!

As a simple example, the State of Illinois wastes literally millions of dollars every year with humans taking tolls on our toll roads. In contrast, the Indiana State Toll Road has no humans, not a single person is engaged in taking dollars/coins or making change for their toll-road users. You can pay Indiana tolls with a credit card or go online but you can’t give money to a human. There are literally thousands of other IL State gov’t jobs that can and should be eliminated or replaced by what my kid calls a “computer” with one goal in mind—save money for taxpayers who are shouldering the highest combined tax burden in the country.

I have seen job postings for positions across the State where gov’t workers are doing things in the most inefficient and least effective way—the sole reason for the inefficiency is to protect the job and leave the burden for it on taxpayers.

How About the IL WC Commission?

Well, I am sorry to say this but I think the IWCC could get along with about half of their staff and still be effective. We have more than 30 Arbitrators—Indiana to our east has five. I am sure we could have 15 Arbitrators who would be busy but the current roster is close to double what it might take to be “busy” because IL WC claims keep dropping every year and more people keep fleeing our State due to ever-rising taxes. Please note no one in State gov’t ever talks about how few people are needed to fulfill a function—once a state gov’t job is created, it is virtually impossible to end it.

In 2005, the IWCC went from six Commissioners to nine—each Commissioner has two full time attorney assistants. With respect, I consider all 27 of these jobs to be the cushiest administrative jobs in the U.S.—if all 27 lawyers issued one decision on a contested claim each week, they would have nothing to do in ninety days. If you want the math, send a reply. I am sure we could easily go back to six or even three Commissioners.

The most egregious and open example of wasting our tax dollars are the four “remote” IWCC offices across the State, in Springfield, Collinsville, Peoria and Rockford. These are almost hilarious to contemplate—the IWCC website says “If you intend to visit our Peoria or Rockford office, please call first to make sure the office is open.” Why not just permanently close all such offices and let the public figure out how to access online forms and other information?

Summary

We wish our new Governor all the best in his chosen position. He spent literally millions to bring his new face and expertise to IL State gov’t. We hope he takes hold of the reins and does something no IL Governor has done in recent memory—streamline gov’t and run it like a competitive private company would be operated. We will have to wait and see how things go. Please watch this space for news as I report it.

We appreciate your thoughts and comments. Please post them on our award-winning blog.

Synopsis: Odd and Almost Never-Ending WC Ruling For Litigious City of Chicago Worker.

Editor’s comment: In Pisano v. Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, you may note at least one of the claims took 13 years to resolve!! From my count, Claimant Pisano had 14 different IL WC claims against the City and settled all but these three. Some of the claims may have been handled by the City’s corporation counsel and some of them appear to have been farmed out to the “emergency-only” outside defense firm picked by Alderman Ed Burke. To my understanding both the defense firm and the Claimant firm donate regularly and heavily to Alderman Burke’s 18th Ward Organization or his other secret political entities. I promise “only the Shadow knows” where and how much money has been donated.

Either way, it appears Claimant was a hoist engineer for the City of Chicago who alleged he injured his wrist, elbow, and shoulders in three separate incidents from 2005 to 2010. For reasons I don’t understand, the claims were “consolidated” which is supposed to mean they are heard in order—such claims are not supposed to be “blended” into one claim, as clearly occurred with these three old claims.

An Arbitrator awarded Claimant PPD or Permanent Partial Disability for his elbow and wrist injury in the first incident. The Arbitrator also awarded wage-differential benefits for a wrist injury in the second event. The Arbitrator ruled the third incident was part and parcel to the first two and did not require additional PPD benefits. The Arbitrator denied Claimant’s request for Permanent Total Disability because he was physically capable of obtaining other employment if he went through and cooperated with vocational training. The Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission approved the ruling, with some changes to the wage-differential rate.

The Illinois Appellate Court, WC Division recently overturned the trial court’s ruling on whether a claimant could receive two forms of workers’ compensation benefits from separate injuries that were “consolidated” or blended into one claim. The Court ruling indicated are several types of benefits that the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission can award, including:

• Specific loss

• Body as a whole

• Wage loss and

• Total and permanent disability.

The trial court remanded the case back to the IWCC, stating Claimant should receive only one form of benefits that encompasses all of his injuries. The IWCC chose to award Claimant wage-differential benefits. The Appellate Court overturned the trial court’s ruling while also modifying the IWCC’s original ruling:

• The wrist and elbow injuries were “separate” and Claimant can receive a different form of IL WC benefits for each one; but

• Claimant could not receive both PPD and wage-differential benefits for the wrist injury, as the IWCC originally ruled.

The IL WC Appellate Court ruled Claimant should receive PPD benefits for his elbow, which he injured in the first incident, and wage-differential benefits for his wrist, which he injured in the first incident and reinjured in the second incident.

The ruling can be viewed online at http://www.illinoiscourts.gov/Opinions/WorkersComp/2018/1172712WC.pdf

We appreciate your thoughts and comments. Please post them on our award-winning blog.

1-7-2019; Chicago/Illinois Gov't Slime Finds Its Own Level--Can We Find Higher Ground?; Kevin Boyle on a Shocking Development in IN WC Administrators and more

Synopsis: Chicago Political and Gov’t Slime Finds Its Own Level—Can We Find Higher Ground?

Editor’s comment: Last week, Chicago Alderman Ed Burke was criminally charged by federal prosecutors with a count of attempted extortion on Jan. 3, 2019. Ed Burke is the longest sitting alderman in the history of aldermen/women. The federal criminal charge alleges Burke tried to use his elected position to get legal work out of a fast food restaurant that sought his clearance for a remodeling and driveway project in 2017. A federal criminal complaint unsealed last Thursday charged Burke with attempted extortion for allegedly using his position as alderman to try to steer thousands of dollars in RE tax “appeal” business to his private law firm from a company seeking to renovate a fast-food restaurant in his ward. The charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison on conviction.

The complaint also alleged Burke asked one of the company’s executives in December 2017 to attend an upcoming political fundraiser for "another politician." Sources identified the politician as Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle, who is running for Chicago mayor.

Authorities were allowed to seal the warrant to arrest Ald. Burke so he wouldn't flee. The case filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago started a little more than a month after the FBI carried out two raids on Burke’s City Hall office, working for hours behind windows covered with brown butcher paper before leaving down a back staircase with computers and files. The unveiling of the criminal charges touched off a scene last Thursday at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse, where Burke turned himself in to federal prosecutors before appearing before a magistrate judge in a packed courtroom on the building’s 17th floor. He was released on a $10,000 bond.

According to an FBI agent’s affidavit, executives from the fast food company sought Burke’s clearance for a City of Chicago building permit. Burke arranged to meet with the executives and “used his position as an Alderman — including his apparent ability to withhold his official support for the building permit and a related driveway permit — in order to corruptly solicit unlawful personal financial advantage in the form of fees arising from the retention of Burke’s law firm, Klafter and Burke.”

What Does This Have to Do With Workers’ Comp?

For decades Ed Burke has chaired the Chicago City Council’s omnipotent Finance Committee, which controls city spending, as well as what some folks call the City of Chicago’s $100 million-plus a year workers’ compensation “defense” system. The reason I put in quotes--the….$100 million-plus a year WC “defense” system is because no one on this planet can figure out what is defended and exactly how much is spent/wasted on workers’ comp in the City of Chicago. In my opinion and understanding, Alderman Burke “hides” the money for workers’ comp benefits in a large assortment of places—some of it is in department budgets, some of it is in a workers’ comp budget, lots of it is virtually impossible to trace. I am told but cannot prove the City of Chicago may have as many as 3,000 pending litigated WC claims at any given time. I have searched the City of Chicago employee database and there was no one listed as a “workers’ comp adjuster” at any time. I have been advised there is one adjuster and one Corp. Counsel defense lawyer for all those claims. To my further understanding, the responsibilities of managing millions in WC benefits for City workers could be switched regularly under Alderman Burke.

To my understanding, you don’t get to be a City of Chicago WC vendor without working out some deal with Alderman Burke where you pay and pay and pay to see if he might wave his magic wand at your company. In my opinion, he could care less about whether your company might be the best claims adjusting company, law firm, nurse case management concern, voc rehab provider or whatever, his primary concern was to have you make regular political donations and bring his law firm all of your clients’ real estate tax adjustment work. To my further understanding, Alderman Burke received regular political donations from one WC defense firm that handled the City’s so-called “emergency” WC claims; Ed Burke also received lots of donations from three Petitioner/Plaintiff firms.  

Alderman Burke also is unique because for decades, he would not allow workers to be brought back to light work, allowing them to stay off and receive tax-free work comp benefits for decades in some cases. The whole time the injured City of Chicago worker was on WC benefits, they would continue to accrue pension credit and then get a nice lump-sum settlement along with a lifetime fake gov’t pension. Alderman Burke was also an opponent of surveillance of the injured workers under his supervision because he did not want to deal with anyone learning someone who might be getting work comp benefits was also running a business or working a second job. I am sure but can’t prove to you the number of WC fraud charges brought against City of Chicago workers under Alderman Burke was zero, zip, nada.

Outside looking in, what I feel Alderman Burke did was to basically use the City of Chicago workers’ comp program as a way to turn city workers into his serfs or peons—anyone who would receive years, maybe decades of tax-free benefits and no longer have to work at all after suffering a minor injury would be a loyal political worker. Please note that tawdry claims concept isn’t expressly illegal, it is just what I feel is an ethical abomination.

What Other Arguable Skullduggery Occurred Under Alderman Burke?

Well, most folks don’t know the City of Chicago Police and Fire Disability Systems were under the direction and control of Alderman Burke. Ed Burke would allow police officers and firefighters to remain on disability pay for decades at taxpayer expense. While on such “disability pay,” some of these supposedly disabled folks would go to college and law school and better themselves, all while on the dole. The idea of bringing an injured cop back to a 911 desk seemed to me to be too challenging for Alderman Burke—why not just allow that worker to feast on the benefit stream and remain loyal during elections to whoever Alderman Burke pointed them to?

Last but not least, Alderman Burke was famous for seeking real estate tax adjustment business for his law firm. In my view, the fake and phony process of what our legislators and administrators call real estate property tax “appeals,” is a complete joke and should be a national embarrassment. Basically thousands of assessments are created by moron county clerk-types who screw the assessments up regularly. No one is ever called to task for making such mistakes. There is no effort by the Cook County Assessor’s Office to insure the assessments are triple-checked and run through what our kids call “computers” so the levy is accurate to the dollar. Basically what has gone on for decades in Cook County is

• The assessor’s clerks screw up the levy;

• All real estate owners are of the impression they need to hire a lawyer to “appeal” or more likely seek an adjustment of their proposed real estate taxes and

• The real estate “appeal” lawyers rake in literally billions in getting the taxes adjusted.

If you think I am kidding when I say this fake and phony process actually costs real estate owners in Cook County billions of dollars, please send a reply and I will show you what I have as strong proof. Please note any discount given by the County over their initial mispricing of the levy doesn’t mean real estate owners don’t lose between 1/3-1/2 of the supposed “savings” by having to pay the lawyers.

Please note there is almost no legal work involved in this fake and phony real estate tax adjustment process—the so-called “appeal” form is almost always filled out by an admin for the lawyers’ firms. No lawyer files a motion or orally argues anything—the same clerks who screwed up the assessment read the “appeal” form and may cut the assessment in reliance thereon.

Actually, real estate tax “appeal” law isn’t taught in any Illinois law school and there have never been any real estate tax questions on the Illinois bar exam. I have never seen a seminar or continuing legal education on improving legal acumen in the real estate tax adjustment process. I have also never seen an appellate court or supreme court ruling on a real estate tax adjustment.

To my understanding, Alderman Burke has resigned from the Chairmanship of the Finance Committee. An audit has been called for to try to locate the money wasted on the City’s WC program. As there is an election very shortly, let’s hope the new mayor takes a hard look at how the City’s WC defense program has been run and brings in some outside folks to cut the claims and get injured workers back to work and save taxpayers millions of dollars.

I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Please post them on our award-winning blog.

Synopsis: Short but interesting news from Kevin Boyle, J.D. about Indiana’s WC administrators.

Editor’s comment: Kevin reports Bridget Repay was set to take over District 1 for Single Hearing Member Gerald Ediger. However, it was just disclosed she is not taking the position. Single Hearing Member Sarkisian will temporarily cover District 1 until a replacement is announced. As soon as a new one  is announced, Kevin will let you know.

Kevin is one of the top defense attorneys in Indiana and handles WC and GL claims across the State. No one closes them faster—feel free to contact Kevin any time with your toughest Hoosier WC questions at kboyle@keefe-law.com.