SWCB: Efficient or Careless?

Tuesday, October 19, 2010 | 0

By Nance L. Schick
The Law Studio of Nance L. Schick

I just received a Board Panel Decision in which I was chastised for not attaching a Memorandum to an Application for Board Review. Silly me. I actually read the mandatory cover sheet, which reads:

"Attach additional sheets only when there is not enough room to supply the information on the cover sheet."

I mistakenly thought that meant I should not attach additional sheets (such as an unnecessary Memorandum restating the arguments on the cover sheet) when there was enough room for me to supply the information on the cover sheet.

This is not the first time the Board has failed to read its own forms. In Vinovrksi, the Board rejected a carrier's claim for Section 15(8) reimbursement because there was an incomplete section on the C-250 form. Both the Board and the Appellate Division, Third Department decided the form was defective despite specific language printed on the form, which indicates the claim is filed “without precluding the right to establish further facts as may be developed.” See Vinovrski v. Innovative Chemical Corp. et al., 843 N.Y.S.2d 199 (3d Dep’t 2007). Although the carrier gave the information it had at the time of filing the form and the form suggested amendments were allowed as new information was available, the printed form was not amended or given sufficient credibility. Thank goodness written contracts in most forums are given greater consideration, especially when the reviewing tribunal is the one that wrote it!

Maybe the majority doesn't care what happens to insurance carriers or employers in these forums because they are viewed as big and nasty corporations who screw over the little guy and deserve to be squeezed. I've met plenty of Judges who, although commissioned to be impartial, have this prejudice. Yet they see small businesses struggling to do the right things in their court rooms everyday, and these same Judges and Commissioners are the first to whine when their insurance rates go up.

Newsflash! None of these cases occurs in a vaccuum. We know you're human and will make mistakes, but you will make fewer of them if you give each case and all parties sufficient time and attention. There is really no excuse for failing to read your own forms.

Nance L. Schick is a workers' compensation defense attorney in New York City. This column was reprinted with her permission from her blog, http://www.nschicklaw.com/BLOG.html