STATE OF NEW YORK
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8988--A
IN ASSEMBLY
January 31, 2024
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BRONSON -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Labor -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted
as amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to the
parties' rights to a hearing upon application to the workers' compen-
sation board and requiring a record of all hearings held
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Subdivisions 1, 2 and 3 of section 20 of the workers'
2 compensation law are renumbered subdivisions 2, 3 and 4 and a new subdi-
3 vision 1 is added to read as follows:
4 1. The board shall index a claim for workers' compensation immediately
5 upon the receipt of a medical report in addition to either a claim filed
6 by the injured worker or an employer's report of injury or illness.
7 § 2. Subdivision 2 of section 20 of the workers' compensation law,
8 as added by chapter 635 of the laws of 1996 and as renumbered by section
9 one of this act, is amended to read as follows:
10 2. [At any time after the expiration of the first seven days of disa-
11 bility on the part of an injured employee, or at any time after the
12 employee's death, a claim for compensation may be presented to the
13 employer or to the chair. The] Within sixty days after a claim for
14 compensation has been indexed, the board shall hold an initial hearing
15 for each claim in which the injured worker asserts lost wages or lost
16 time due to injury and shall have full power and authority to determine
17 all questions in relation to the payment of claims presented to it for
18 compensation under the provisions of this chapter. The chair or board
19 shall thereafter make or cause to be made such investigation as it deems
20 necessary, and upon application of either party or an attorney repres-
21 enting either party, shall order a hearing before a referee to take
22 place within forty-five calendar days of the application from either
23 party, and within thirty days after a claim for compensation is submit-
24 ted under this section, or such hearing closed, shall make or deny an
25 award, determining such claim for compensation, and file the same in the
26 office of the chair. No application for a hearing made by a party or an
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09993-03-4
A. 8988--A 2
1 attorney pursuant to this section shall be subject to limitations,
2 prerequisites, or penalties imposed by the board. Immediately after such
3 filing the chair shall send to the parties a copy of the decision. Upon
4 a hearing pursuant to this section either party may present evidence and
5 be represented by counsel. The decision of the board shall be final as
6 to all questions of fact, and, except as provided in section twenty-
7 three of this article, as to all questions of law. Except as provided
8 in section twenty-seven of this article, all awards of the board shall
9 draw simple interest from thirty days after the making thereof at the
10 rate provided in section five thousand four of the civil practice law
11 and rules. Whenever a hearing or proceeding for the determination of a
12 claim for compensation is begun before a referee, pursuant to the
13 provisions of this chapter, such hearing or proceeding or any adjourned
14 hearing thereon shall continue before the same referee until a final
15 determination awarding or denying compensation, except in the absence,
16 inability or disqualification to act of such referee, or for other good
17 cause, in which event such hearing or proceeding may be continued before
18 another referee by order of the chair or board.
19 § 3. Paragraph (c) of subdivision 3 of section 25 of the workers'
20 compensation law, as amended by chapter 61 of the laws of 1986, is
21 amended to read as follows:
22 (c) The board shall keep an accurate record of all hearings held. All
23 decisions shall be issued to the injured worker in their native
24 language. Whenever a hearing must be continued or adjourned because the
25 carrier or employer has engaged in dilatory tactics or exhibited unjus-
26 tified lack of preparedness, the board shall impose a penalty of twen-
27 ty-five dollars to be paid to the fund created by subdivision two of
28 section one hundred fifty-one of this chapter and shall in addition make
29 an award of seventy-five dollars payable to the injured worker or his or
30 her dependants. Dilatory tactics may include but shall not be limited
31 to: failing to subpoena medical witnesses or to secure an order to show
32 cause as directed by the referee, failing to bring proper files, failing
33 to appear, failing to produce witnesses or documents after they have
34 been requested by the referee or examiner or as directed by the hearing
35 notice, unnecessarily protracting the production of evidence, or engag-
36 ing in a pattern of delay which unduly delays resolution, except that no
37 penalty shall be imposed nor award made under this subdivision if the
38 carrier or employer produces evidence sufficient to excuse its conduct
39 to the satisfaction of the referee.
40 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.