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Ex. AGY-ST-COURTS-001 Order Primary source read

In re: COVID-19 State of Emergency, En Banc, Misc. No. 260

En banc decision temporarily suspending WCAB Rules of Practice and Procedure statewide and recognizing the closure of DWC district offices for filing

Workers' Compensation Appeals Board of the State of California (en banc) · California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (State workers' compensation tribunal; statewide) (Court)

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The COVID Project

The record

Jurisdiction
California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (State workers' compensation tribunal; statewide) · California
Level
Court
Authority
Cal. Lab. Code § 115; Cal. Code Regs. tit. 8, § 10370 (suspension of rules in an emergency); Cal. Const. art. XIV, § 4
Issued
2020-03-18 Mar. 18, 2020
Effective
2020-03-18
End
Suspension of the report-deadline rules rescinded as of Sept. 1, 2020 (Misc. No. 263, Ex. AGY-ST-COURTS-004); the remaining suspensions 'remain in effect until further notice' (rescission date not verified) (read as 2020-09-01)
In force
Mar. 18, 2020 to Sept. 1, 2020
Quarters
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
Limitation types
Emergency declarationCourts and public offices
Addressees
  • all WCAB district offices
  • workers' compensation judges and arbitrators
  • parties, lien claimants and their representatives
  • insurers and self-insured employers
Functions reached
  • CT courts and agencies (workers' compensation adjudication suspended and converted to remote filing and hearing)
  • SV claims servicing and settlement (compromise-and-release witness signatures suspended; settlements delayed)
  • OF office and administration of insurers, employers and law firms
  • WF workforce (injured-worker benefit disputes delayed)
Collection
State courts AGY-ST-COURTS

Operative words

In light of this state of emergency and pursuant to its authority per WCAB Rule 10370, the Appeals Board is temporarily suspending specific WCAB Rules of Practice and Procedure contained in Title 8 of the California Code of Regulations.... This suspension is applicable to all district offices in the State... On March 16, 2020, the Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) issued Newsline Release No. 2020-18 providing in pertinent part that the DWC's district offices are currently closed for filing from March 17 through April 3.... In accordance with this, all filing deadlines are extended to the next day when the district offices reopen for filing.

Enforcement

En banc decisions 'are binding precedent on all Appeals Board panels and WCJs' (Cal. Code Regs. tit. 8, § 10325); adopted as a precedent decision under Gov. Code § 11425.60(b)

Notes

Reaches every California employer and insurer with a pending workers' compensation dispute, and the law firms, medical-legal evaluators and lien claimants that serve them; the DWC district offices were closed for filing Mar. 17-Apr. 13, 2020 (see Ex. AGY-ST-COURTS-006 recital).

Retrieval note

Text read in full from the Board's own PDF.

A record of The COVID Project. The instrument's text is the source's; the summary fields are The COVID Project's reading of it. Not legal advice.