eJCC Software

The OJCC is working to provide greater automation for service of documents. Long-time e-JCC users are familiar with our prior transition to e-service for carriers. Our normal process with electronic filing's evolution is to periodically make changes to the e-JCC platform. Processes are refined, features are added.  On November 10, 2014 the Florida Rules of Workers' Compensation Procedure were amended. Since 2012, the rules have required carriers and third-party administrators to register with the OJCC, providing a general delivery email address for service of notices and orders. The new rules extend that requirement to employers.  The change is in Chapter 60, Florida Administrative Code: 60Q6.108 Filing and Service "(11) All employers, self-insurers, third-party administrators, and carriers shall register a single, general delivery, e-mail address with the OJCC for receipt of all electronically served documents, including petitions for benefits. All employers, self-insu...

Two great Scott Adams quotes occur to me this morning. Mr. Adams writes the cartoon strip Dilbert, and his thoughts are often poignant, sometimes painfully so. First, from December 11, 1999, the “boss” says “I think the internet might catch on. I rushed over here so I could be the first to say it’s a new paradigm.” Earlier, in 1995, Mr. Adams coined the phrase “a paradigm shifting without a clutch.”  Well, if none of you have beat me to it, let me rush out here to be the first to say that electronic service at the OJCC is a "new paradigm."    That said, I am sure that this whole internet thing, which seems like the be all and end all, is really just another stepping stone. We will look back on the internet one day and reminisce about it the way we reminisce today about black and white televisions. That is not because it is not a great tool, it is because the next thing will make it obsolete. Do you think our ancestors ever thought anything would be invented that was ...

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...