What is Next

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 Office." Some are different only in that the five-digit Zip is used in one and the nine-digit is used in the other. These are all in our database, and they came from the attorneys so they are in a variety of case management systems around the state. It will take time to bring uniformity to this. 

We will lead the way. Our clerk's office is currently in the process of cleaning our database. We will remove 49 of the 50 "Liberty Mutual" entries we have. The remaining one will be the official address set that Liberty Mutual registered with us. This effort will simplify matters and will bring uniformity from our end of things. 

I realize that in this transition time there will be some confusion and some frustration. However, when we are through the transition, it will be a far more predictable and useful process that we will all consistently use. 

We will soon begin to encourage employers to register for e-service. I am certain that we will never have every employer in our database for service of documents. We will make the effort though. I anticipate we will get the large employers. Large companies, state agencies, counties, cities, and school boards will all be early adopters in my opinion. I have had a couple of cities that have been asking me about this for years. 

Stay tuned. Remain patient. Keep those cards and letters (kidding, send me emails at david.langham@doah.state.fl.us) coming. I appreciate your ideas, your feedback, and yes your criticism. Without you, there is no reason for us to pursue the deployment of these new services and innovations. I want them to be what you need and want. 

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