STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 5867 2023-2024 Regular Sessions IN SENATE March 20, 2023 ___________ Introduced by Sen. RAMOS -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor 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 stenographic 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 and shall have full power and authority to determine all 16 questions in relation to the payment of claims presented to it for 17 compensation under the provisions of this chapter. The chair or board 18 shall thereafter make or cause to be made such investigation as it deems 19 necessary, and upon application of either party or an attorney repres- 20 enting either party, shall order a hearing before a referee to take 21 place within forty-five calendar days of the application from either 22 party, and within thirty days after a claim for compensation is submit- 23 ted under this section, or such hearing closed, shall make or deny an 24 award, determining such claim for compensation, and file the same in the EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD09993-01-3
S. 5867 2 1 office of the chair. No application for a hearing made by a party or an 2 attorney pursuant to this section shall be subject to limitations, 3 prerequisites, or penalties imposed by the board. Immediately after such 4 filing the chair shall send to the parties a copy of the decision. Upon 5 a hearing pursuant to this section either party may present evidence and 6 be represented by counsel. The decision of the board shall be final as 7 to all questions of fact, and, except as provided in section twenty- 8 three of this article, as to all questions of law. Except as provided 9 in section twenty-seven of this article, all awards of the board shall 10 draw simple interest from thirty days after the making thereof at the 11 rate provided in section five thousand four of the civil practice law 12 and rules. Whenever a hearing or proceeding for the determination of a 13 claim for compensation is begun before a referee, pursuant to the 14 provisions of this chapter, such hearing or proceeding or any adjourned 15 hearing thereon shall continue before the same referee until a final 16 determination awarding or denying compensation, except in the absence, 17 inability or disqualification to act of such referee, or for other good 18 cause, in which event such hearing or proceeding may be continued before 19 another referee by order of the chair or board. 20 § 3. Paragraph (c) of subdivision 3 of section 25 of the workers' 21 compensation law, as amended by chapter 61 of the laws of 1986, is 22 amended to read as follows: 23 (c) The board shall keep an accurate stenographic record and tran- 24 script recorded by a verbatim reporter in the employ of the board of all 25 hearings held and provide the minutes, at no cost, to the injured worker 26 and their representative in the native language of the injured worker. 27 All decisions shall be issued to the injured worker in their native 28 language. Whenever a hearing must be continued or adjourned because the 29 carrier or employer has engaged in dilatory tactics or exhibited unjus- 30 tified lack of preparedness, the board shall impose a penalty of twen- 31 ty-five dollars to be paid to the fund created by subdivision two of 32 section one hundred fifty-one of this chapter and shall in addition make 33 an award of seventy-five dollars payable to the injured worker or his or 34 her dependants. Dilatory tactics may include but shall not be limited 35 to: failing to subpoena medical witnesses or to secure an order to show 36 cause as directed by the referee, failing to bring proper files, failing 37 to appear, failing to produce witnesses or documents after they have 38 been requested by the referee or examiner or as directed by the hearing 39 notice, unnecessarily protracting the production of evidence, or engag- 40 ing in a pattern of delay which unduly delays resolution, except that no 41 penalty shall be imposed nor award made under this subdivision if the 42 carrier or employer produces evidence sufficient to excuse its conduct 43 to the satisfaction of the referee. 44 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.