On May 15, 2018, I went to hearing on a Claim that I had filed January 25, 2018. That's lightening fast for a Workers Compensation case. This is how I got the case to hearing so fast:
2/26/18: Filed claim with Alaska Workers Compensation Board.
2/27/18: Board served the Claim (sent it to the insurance company).
3/19/18: Twenty days after the Claim is served by the Board, you can ask for a hearing date by filing an Affidavit of Readiness for Hearing. I always file on Day 20 unless it's a weekend, then I file the next business day. Be sure you really are ready for hearing because showing up unprepared is not a reason to get a continuance .
3/20/18: A prehearing conference took place because I filed the Claim. Per the regulations, the hearing must be set within 60 days after the prehearing conference. The insurance company attorney may claim that the hearing will take twice as long as it really will to make it difficult to schedule the hearing because the bigger blocks of available time are further out in the future. So if I say the hearing should take two hours, opposing counsel may say four hours. Or if I say four hours, opposing counsel may say all day. Only once have I had a hearing run longer than one day and that was because opposing counsel showed up with a bunch of co-employees to testify against my client. (I won anyway).
5/15/18: Hearing.
5/23/18: Record was held open to allow opposing counsel to object to my attorneys fees request and for my response.
6/22/18: A decision from the Board is due. The Board generally gets the decisions out on time. If it's more than a week late, send the Board an e-mail (cc: opponent) asking for a status on the opinion.
If you need a Second Independent Medical Evaluation, the case will take 12 months to 18 months. This is what you can expect based on an imaginary case:
Day 1: File Claim, Petition for Second Independent Medical Evaluation (SIME) with a SIME form and Medical Summaries with all the medical records attached in chronological order. Mail a copy of everything to the insurance company. If there is no insurance company, mail it to your employer.
Day 20: File an Affidavit of Readiness for Hearing on the Petition for Second Independent Medical Evaluation twenty days after you sent a copy of it to the insurance company.
Day 50: A prehearing will be held because of the Affidavit of Readiness that was filed. The insurance company attorney may agree to the SIME or not. If it doesn't, there needs to be a hearing date. The insurance company attorney will claim s/he is incredibly busy and cannot do the hearing until the last possible date.
Day 110: Hearing on Petition for SIME. The insurance company attorney may agree to the SIME at the hearing or may not.
Day 140: A decision from the Board on the Petition for SIME is due. The file is routed to the person who sets SIMEs.
Day 200: By now, there will have been an order to file all the medical records and proposed SIME questions and how to do it. All this stuff has to be on the desk of someone at the Board before the SIME appointment will be made.
Day 260: The Board will send out notice of the SIME appointment, generally one to two months in advance of the appointment.
Day 320: The SIME appointment.
Day 335: The SIME report is due. Some doctors get in on time; some have to be bugged. The parties are not allowed to contact the SIME doctor. The Board will contact the SIME doctor to find out what the problem is, but only if the Board is reminded. There is no point in reminding the Board until the SIME is at least a month late.
Day 375: Start bugging the Board about the status of the SIME report. An e-mail which is copied to opposing counsel will do.
Day 382: If haven't heard from the Board, bug them again.
Day 389: Bug the Board again about the SIME report.
Day 425: The SIME report should show up by now. File an Affidavit of Readiness for Hearing on the Claim.
Day 485: A prehearing is set on the Affidavit of Readiness for Hearing on the Claim.
Day 545: Hearing on the claim.
Day 595: A decision is due from the Board.
So if the claim was filed January 2, 2017, you can expect a decision from the Board in August of 2018. The biggest hang-up is getting the SIME scheduled and getting the SIME report. But the SIME report is very important. Many times, it can make or break the case. So it's important to have.
Another reason it's important to pursue the SIME from the beginning vigorously is that you can end up in front of the Board after litigating your case for months, hoping for a decision and the Board decides to order an SIME which, as you see, will make the case last even longer.
The case could wind up faster than that if the insurance company's attorney sends you a reasonable settlement offer. They usually will not do that until the SIME report is in. With some defense firms, their M.O. is to wait until the week before the hearing to make a settlement offer. So that is why you want to keep pushing the case forward as fast as you can.
Keenan Powell has practiced law in Alaska for more than 30 years and has dedicated her practice to Workers Compensation representing injured Alaskans.
All consultations are free. If you want to set up a meeting, use the contact form on www.keenanpowell.com or call: 907 258 7663.