ymcgavin@socal.rr.com
Senior Member
Posts: 1351
Joined: Jun 2002
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Friday February 06, 2009 8:30 AM
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Hi ELH, et al,
You stated: "I started filing my "new liens" OCR format, etc and am mailing them to the appropriate boards."
We do the same thing, but although it costs more, we take the extra step of mailing them to the appropriate district office of the WCAB, copying the ER, IC, and DA, all by certified return-receipt mail. On the green r-r card, we write the name of the IW (e.g. Sally Sue Soreback) along with a notation EAMS DWC WCAB Form 6 --- and in the past, the legacy case number, but now the EAMS number.
We have been doing this for over 10 years, albeit without the "EAMS" notation for our older liens.
On a daily basis, I still hear complaints from WCJs that our liens are not listed on the old OAR, nor are they included in the new EAMS address record, as well as the same complaint from the DA that they never received a copy of our lien.
Of course all of our liens are on legacy cases, as we shut the door to new IW referrals 1/1/05. Quite often, after we have walked through a DOR to get a case on calendar for a status conference, we get angry letters or angry phone calls from the adjuster or DA claiming that "this is a closed file, we did not receive a copy of the lien," and a request that we provide them with a new copy.
My response has always been the same: "I am not going to send you another copy, as I have already provided you a copy via certified return-receipt mail, the green card indicates your facility (IC/TPA/DA) received it on so-and-so a date," and I suggest to the IC/TPA/DA that they go to their long-term storage, retrieve and reopen the closed file, and locate our lien.
The certified return-receipt documentation has always saved the day. Once I demonstrate to the WCJ that we did indeed deliver the lien to the WCAB, and I explain that I have no control over what the WCAB's clerical staff does, or does not do, we proceed to either resolving the lien or litigating the lien.
The WCJs are quite aware that their clerical staff are simply overwhelmed.
In regards to the DA or adjuster, who writes or calls complaining they never received a copy of our lien, again the certified return-receipt documentation saves the day. What it all boils down to is that the DA and/or the adjuster simply does not want to request the "closed file" to be pulled from storage, and have to reopen it.
Oh well. I did my job, and unless the DA or adjuster is willing to pay me to copy them again, they will need to pull the "closed file" from storage and reopen it.
ELH, keep on mailing in those liens --- but do it certified return-receipt. If you are not notified of a hearing due to the failure of the WCAB's clerical staff to open your letter, and scan the lien into EAMS, as well as properly add you to the address record, it is through no fault of your own.
As an aside for those who are, or will be, signing up as external EAMS users --- be prepared with paper backup copies of everything. There is no 'firewall' or 'encryption software' or 'virus, worm, or trojan protection' that is 100% safe.
Sooner or later, somebody is going to knowingly or unknowingly electronically file a sub-rosa picture in jpg format, a sub-rosa video in mpeg format, or a brief saved as a pdf document, containing a virus, worm, or trojan that will crash the EAMS system --- and possibly infect the computers of EAMS' external users. It will be interesting to see how the fire department for the WCAB puts out that blaze --- while the system grinds to a halt.
For the sake of the injured workers of CA, I certainly hope this does not happen, but I will not be surprised if it does happen.
York McGavin
ymcgavin@socal.rr.com 
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