eJCC Software

Who ya gonna call? Don't call, email askojcc@doah.state.fl.us In Ghostbusters II, Dr. Peter Venkman (doctor of what? I might ask. But that is another story) is on the stand in court and responds to the prosecutor  "Kitten, what I think I'm saying is, sometimes, (stuff) happens, somebody's gotta deal with it, and who're you gonna call?!"  Of course this is a clever screenwriting integration of the Ray Parker theme song from the original movie. And it illustrates the point for today. He is right, sometimes stuff happens and it needs to be fixed. At the end of February, Jeannie Paugh retired from the OJCC. Jeannie had been with us for many years, since before the OJCC became part of DOAH. She was helpful, kind, and considerate. We will all miss her. Jeannie was eager to help people and so people called and emailed her frequently. Things like: I named my document incorrectly when I uploaded it, will you change it? I put the wrong carrier in the petition, will you...

The Clerk's office received a request recently from one of our District Offices. Essentially, the District had received an email from one attorney on a case asking that the carrier on that case be changed to another carrier. From the law firm paralegal involved, we received by email "Please note that the correct Carrier for this case is York Risk Services Group, 605 Crescent Executed Court, Ste. 300, Lake Mary, FL 32746.  Thank you." So here, as Paul Harvey was so fond of telling us, is "The rest of the story . . .." In April, 2010, Claimant filed a petition against the Employer and listed "Avizent" as the carrier. Within days, defense counsel filed a notice of appearance and listed "Avizent" as the carrier.  Before the end of April, 2010, an adjuster from "Avizent" filed a Response to Petition. In May 2010, another PFB named "Avizent" as the carrier. In June, an  " Avizent"  adjuster filed a Response. In June 20...

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...

The vast majority of insurance carriers and third party administrators (TPA) registered for e-service last fall. When we rolled-out the e-service program on January 14, 2013, we learned that a significant number had not registered. In the last month, we have identified (with the help of our diligent and helpful users), researched, located, and added 161 carriers or TPAs. We continue to receive inquiries about missing names. Before you contact us about a "missing" name, please double check that the company you are looking for is a "carrier" or "TPA." We have wasted many hours trying to find and register companies that have turned out to be nurse case management companies and prescription management companies. These names came to counsel's attention because an injured worker was contacted by them and some services were offerred or provided. Certainly, the injured worker may think that they are the "insurance company." My first question for anyo...