eJCC Software

I am starting to get some questions about the new process we are using for insurance carriers and third party administrators in our database. The essential question is “I have a different address that I want to use for the carrier, which is different from the one in the database; why can’t I change to the address I want to use?” For several years since the beginning of e-filing, we allowed the parties to input whatever address they wanted to for the carrier against whom or for whom they were filing. Effective January 14, 2013, in our move to e-service, we required by rule that each carrier designate the addresses they would use for receiving Florida workers' compensation litigation mail. The carriers each selected the address at which they want to receive mail (paper or electronic). This is their choice. Their choice is reflected in the e-JCC program. I understand that we may feel we know better than they do, and that we could pick an address that would be better for them to receiv...

Whitney Houston asked that in 1985. She was presciently focused, no doubt, on the future of workers’ compensation e-filing, which would come to Florida twenty years later. How will I know that my petition for benefits or other pleading was received? A great question, and the answer to this question is a fundamental element of the e-service paradigm that we are entering. Discretion has decreased in recent years. E-filing has evolved from a permissive tool exploited by the most daring progressive practitioners to a mandatory process in workers’ Compensation. Florida’s courts will attempt to make e-filing mandatory soon. As civil e-filing is a much larger proposition, used by a larger population of attorneys, their challenges are greater. It is nonetheless a matter of pride that workers’ compensation practitioners tell me that their angst over civil e-filing has been minimal, because of their experience and comfort with OJCC e-filing gained in recent years. E-filing was recently join...

I have had the chance to speak to many attorneys in the last few weeks. The meetings of the Florida Bar Workers' Compensation Section Executive Council, the Florida Workers' Advocates and the WCI Hall of Fame afforded some of these opportunities. The continuing education program presented by the Office of Judges of Compensation Claims (OJCC) and the Workers' Compensation Institute (WCI) in Tallahassee afforded additional opportunities. In short, the last thirty days has been a great opportunity for feedback on our transition to e-service. I hear that some continue to produce documents such as petitions and responses to petitions, and then send them to others by certified mail. Some ask me "do we still have to use certified mail?" Well, the   post office is failing . They have recently conceded that and they will   abandon Saturday delivery . The Post Office is not failing because of our transition to electronic filing and service, but because of the cumulative eff...

I am pleased that we are down to barely a handful of carriers and third party administrators in our "carrier" database. We are improving this on a daily basis. The cooperation we have seen from these businesses has been overwhelmingly positive. The feedback from attorneys on both sides of the practice have been overwhelmingly positive.  I received an email recently about e-service. The carrier wanted to know why they were now receiving all the mail from attorneys at their newly registered "central" address, but continued to receive documents from the Office of Judges of Compensation Claims (OJCC) at a variety of addresses. This is part of the transition. By way of explanation, before e-service we allowed an individual filing with the OJCC to input the address that they wished.  As a result, we have over 50 "Liberty Mutual" addresses in our database. Some of these differ from others in very minor ways, such as describing "P.O." or "Post Offic...