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The Kentucky Workers’ Compensation Nominating Commission has advised the Governor of its recommendation of three individuals for consideration for an appointment as a workers’ compensation Administrative Law Judge for a term expiring December 31, 2011.
The nominees are: Edward D. Hays, John Wesley Mann, and Tram Runnels.
Hays is a workers’ compensation practitioner and partner with the Danville, Kentucky firm of Sheehan, Barnett, Hays, Dean and Pennington, P.S.C. Hays was previously nominated for the position of Commissioner of the Department of Workers’ Claims. Hays is a 1973 graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law.
Mann, an Eastern Kentucky native, is Assistant General Counsel with the Kentucky Department of Workers’ Claims, serving as the Chief Workers’ Compensation Specialist in the Division of Ombudsman and Workers’ Compensation Specialist Services. Mann is a graduate of the University of Louisville School of Law. In 1997, he was an Arbitrator with the Department of Workers’ Claims.
Runnels is a Western Kentucky attorney.
The Workers’ Compensation Law Center of LexisNexis has already named Ouch! as one of its top blogs. View the complete list here.
UPDATE: See Lexington Herald-Leader story on outcomes for Grigsby and Heaphy
Given the elevated workers’ compensation costs associated with providing and/or contesting ongoing medical treatment, specifically pain management, we must often rely on treating physicians to follow the Hippocratic oath . Two recent suspensions of Lexington physicians shows us that the oath is not always followed.
Today, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports that the Kentucky Board of Medical Licensure (KBML) has suspended 
Lexington physician Dr. James H. Heaphy for over-prescribing controlled substances. Dr. James H. Heaphy, an internal-medicine specialist, was found “to have a pattern of prescribing controlled substances for long-term use and in combinations favored by drug abusers.” Investigators also determined that records and patient charts submitted to the KBML had been altered. Click here to read the complete Lexington Herald-Leader story on Heaphy.
Last week, the Lexington Herald-Leader reported that the KBML issued an emergency order to stop Lexington physician Dr. Charles G. Grigsby from prescribing controlled substances. The Herald-Leader reported that investigators found “Grigsby’s pattern of issuing prescriptions, specifically pain pills, is ‘haphazard’ and ‘constitutes a danger to the health’ and safety of many of his patients . . .” Click here to read the complete Lexington Herald-Leader story on Grigsby.
Most of you know by now but the Kentucky Office of Workers’ Claims has gone back to being known as the Department of Workers’ Claims. The nomenclature was changed under former Governor Fletcher’s administration. Under Governor Beshear the original naming has returned. Similarly, the Executive Director is, once again, known as the Commissioner.
In Hicks v. R & J Well Service, No. 2007-CA-002609-WC, a recent Court of Appeals decision designated not to be published, Senior Judge John W. Graves sitting as Special Judge by assignment of the Chief Justice, issued a unique concurring opinion specifically addressing the ALJ’s interpretation of the evidence relative to whether the claimant suffered a work-related injury as defined by KRS 342.0011. In criticizing the ALJ’s conclusions Judge Graves referenced King Draco, Richard the Lionhearted, Columbus and Pizarro. Judge Graves’ opinion is excerpted below:
GRAVES, SENIOR JUDGE, CONCURRING: I concur with the majority solely because my oath requires that I follow the law, regardless of how unfairly it treats the working wounded who continue to serve their employer.
The existing Kentucky Workers’ Compensation Act has been applied in accordance with the statute; however, I write separately because the result reached by the ALJ is inconsistent not only with the humanitarian purpose of Workers’ Compensation law but also with moral principles. In an employment relationship there is an underlying element of natural justice. When an injured worker is forced to forego necessary curative medical treatment for an on the job injury, he is submitting to a forced wrong, against which justice cries out in protest.
Many fact finders would decide this case differently because they would be able to articulate the infinite variations in gradation of physical injury to the back. That is, the indirect effects of injury have various degrees of gravity depending on an individual’s recuperative powers. Clarence Hicks is being penalized because he has continued to labor even though he had an active disability.
King Draco, with his vast array of multitudinous machinations, could not have devised a more cruel or more harsh result. He would be proud of the result in this case.
Had the Kentucky Workers’ Compensation Act existed in earlier times, Richard the Lionhearted would never have dared risk having a heavy male knight injure his back at the expense of a royal treasury, nor would Columbus or Pizarro have dared the slippery footing of the Santa Maria or the slopes of Mexico. It would not have been worth it.
When soldiers are injured in the line of duty they are given a medal, usually a Purple Heart. Were Clarence Hicks given an award, it would be a Dunce’s cap with the inscription, “Denied a remedy because I am an expendable American worker.”
For the past year, Roland Niemi Law Group , a Lexington, Kentucky workers’ compensation law firm, has been producing Ouch!, a free monthly e-zine distributed to the workers’ compensation professional. Ouch! is now being converted to a blog, which will allow for more multimedia opportunities, timelier updates and comments from users. We hope you find this new workers’ compensation resource informative and helpful.
Enjoy!
An interesting expose on insurance fraud.
At the 2008 CompEd seminar in Louisville, Ky., innovation was the theme of Executive Director Dwight T. Lovan’s presentation on the future of the Office of Workers’ Claims. The most radical of the 
changes posed by Lovan were technological ones. Attorneys will be required to include their e-mail address on pleadings. Additionally, public record information will be accessible online from the OWC’s Web site.
In a brief conversation with Roland Niemi Law Group, Director Lovan indicated that with the possible closing of some hearing sites, video conferencing might be implemented for benefit review conferences. Video conferencing facilities would be maintained at hearing sites and attorneys and judges in remote locations could conduct benefit review conferences. This innovation would no doubt produce a ripple effect of savings across the entire workers’ compensation community.
Though Director Lovan could not provide specific deadlines for implementation of the various technological proposals the OWC has also set Jan. 1, 2009, as a deadline for adopting a system that will allow standard pleadings to be electronically filed.
The Kentucky workers’ compensation community has recently seen four new join the ranks of Workers’ Compensation Administrative Law Judges: Joseph W. Justice of Pikeville, Otto Daniel Wolff of Fort Mitchell, Douglas W. Gott of Bowling Green and Caroline Pitt Clark of Louisville.
- Douglas W. Gott is a workers compensation attorney with a bachelor’s degree from Western Kentucky University and a law degree from the University of Kentucky. Gott’s appointment is effective June 21, 2008, and his term will expire Dec. 31, 2011.
- Effective July 15, 2008, Caroline Clark will serve a term expiring July 14, 2012. Clark is a Centre College and UK College of Law graduate and a former commissioner of the Kentucky Public Service Commission
- Joseph W. Justice is a UK College of Law graduate and replaces John W. Thacker, whose term has expired.
- Otto Daniel Wolff is the city attorney for the City of Lakeside Park. He is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati School of Law. His appointment replaces Aaron Thomas Davis II, whose term has expired.
Roland Niemi Law Group is a virtual and paperless law firm — a unique format for an industry known for producing reams of paper per second and expending millions of dollars to maintain physical infrastructures that revolve around just managing a paper-based service. Roland Niemi is attuned to the waste, disorganization and costs associated with maintaining the traditional law practice, and we are equally cognizant of environmental concerns associated with “doing business as usual.” Our practice allows us to reduce our “carbon footprint,” a concern felt across our planet as well as in our own state.
Read more about how our state, with the assistance of Kentucky
’s first lady, Jane Beshear, is encouraging reduction of the carbon footprint and making our state a greener place to live at http://www.greenteam.ky.gov.
