New Wcab Rules of Practice and Procedure

• Jurisdiction: California,United States
• Author: NATHAN R. YANNONE, ESQ.
• Publication year: 2022
• Citation: Vol. 35 No. 1

New WCAB Rules of Practice and Procedure

NATHAN R. YANNONE, ESQ.

OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA

Effective January 1, 2022, the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) implemented new rules of practice and procedure, therein formalizing the processes for remote hearings, electronic filing and electronic service that developed during the Covid-19 pandemic. The new rules:

create processes for noticing and objecting to remote hearings, remote appearances and remote witness testimony.

(January 3, 2022, DIR Newsline, Release Number: 2022-01.)

The Board set forth new definitions of the terms appearance, hearing and testimony. For example, 8 CCR section 10305(c) has been amended so that appearance now means:

[a] party or their representative's presence, pursuant to Labor Code section 5700, at any hearing.

The Board no longer defines hearing to include those conducted at either a remote location or a district office. Instead, under 8 CCR section 10305(n), hearing now means:

any trial, mandatory settlement conference, status conference, lien conference, lien trial or priority conference conducted by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board.

8 CCR §10305(x) now defines testimony as:

oral evidence given under oath pursuant to Labor Code sections 5704 and 5708.

The WCAB also included new definitions for the terms electronic, filing and service. Electronic was amended under 8 CCR section 10305(i) to include "any available technological means," which would include the Electronic Adjudication Management System (EAMS), newly defined in 8 CCR section 10305(j). The term filing has been amended to mean:

receipt and acceptance by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board of the document for the purpose of having it included in the adjudication file.
A new definition of the term service, included under 8 CCR section 10305(t), is to:
deliver a copy of the document in a manner permitted by these rules to a party or other person.

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Service by the parties was further amended by 8 CCR section 10625(a). The new regulations provide that:

service shall be made on the attorney or agent of record of each affected party unless that party is unrepresented, in which event service shall be made directly on the party, except as otherwise provided by these rules or ordered or allowed by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board.

Amended 8 CCR section 10625(b) provides that:

a document may be served using the following methods:
(1) Personal service;
(2) Electronic service;
(3) First class mail; or
(4)

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