Any employer whose employees belong to a union may negotiate and contract with the union to opt out of certain procedural parts of the workers' compensation system. The obligation to provide compensation remains, but the parties with the necessary agreements can turn to alternative methods of dispute resolution. These sorts of programs are known as "carve-outs" because they make a place for themselves that is at partly outside the normal workers’ compensation system. Carve-outs present many advantages for both sides and streamlines the entire process resulting in much quicker dispositions for dramatically less costs. It essentially gets rid of the costly time wasting rules and procedures of the workers’ compensation system and replaces it with a private system of handling the same cases. It also helps to eliminate the need for attorneys in many phases of the alternative procedures. The “carve-out” system can also be used to quickly dispose of liens that remain on the case after settlement or arbitration. In a “carve-out” case, the mandatory settlement conference is called a mediation and the trial is called an arbitration. The hearings are conducted at the place of employment or at some other private office location by retired judges or experienced attorneys. Usually, two or three cases can he heard on the same day. If the employee files an application of adjudication of claim with the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board against an employer who is in the carve-out system, the application will be mandatorily dismissed by the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board for lack of jurisdiction. It only takes a matter of days to obtain a qualified medical evaluator to resolve medical disputes and just a few weeks to obtain a mediator’s decision on a discovery issue. Slade Neighbors is experienced at litigating carve-out cases from any point of the case through arbitration or appeal in an expeditious manner. We can also assist employers in creating or revising an alternative method of dispute resolution system for workers’ compensation matters. This includes developing a medical provider network list for medical treatment and a doctor list to resolve medical/legal disputes. |