Workers’ Compensation Hearings Update as of April 17, 2020; Covid-19

True to their mission, the Workers’ Compensation Commission (WCC) is continually trying to balance the interests of the injured worker with that of the health and safety of the community at large. Therefore, in response to the recent extension of court closings by Chief Judge Barbera of the Maryland Court of Appeals, the WCC has also announced a postponement of all in-person Commission hearings until June 8, 2020.

The Commission, however, is now in the final stages of establishing the availability of video hearings utilizing the Microsoft Teams virtual platform. All parties involved must agree to continue with the hearing virtually. If all parties do not agree to meet virtually, the hearing will just resume in the normal course, in-person at a later date.

This is a tremendous endeavor by the Commissioners and staff and will go a long way to help get our injured workers the benefits they need and deserve during this difficult time. We applaud the efforts of the Commission as they roll out this new “virtual” court system. There will be glitches along the way, but this will certainly support clearing some of the backlog that continues to accumulate on the hearing dockets.

Written by Julie Mirman, an Associate Attorney with Berman | Sobin | Gross LLP, specializing in medical treatment coverage under workers’ compensation.
Julie Mirman
jmirman@bsgfdlaw.com