You are currently browsing the daily archive for June 21st, 2008.
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.
