MINUTES OF THE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEETING
OF:
April 18, 2008
I. CALL TO ORDER
Chair Holly Somers called the meeting to order at 12:09 PM at the Oregon State Bar office.
Present in person were: Holly Somers, Matthew Roy, Matthew Fisher, and Linh Vu.
Present via telephone were: Julie Masters, Dale Johnson, Geoff Wren, Jill Riechers, Meg Carman, and Rob Guarrasi.
Not present: Jennifer Roumell, Art Stevens, Chuck Mundorff, Mustafa Kasubhai, Dean Lederer, and Mark Thesing.
II. MINUTES
Amendments were made to the March 21, 2008 minutes. Motion to adopt was made by Member Masters and seconded by Chair-Elect Roy. They were then adopted by unanimous vote. The revised minutes are attached as an addendum.
III. CHAIR REPORT
Meeting Dates. Meeting will be on the third Friday of each month at the Oregon State Bar offices, except where otherwise indicated. The following are the remaining meetings of calendar year 2008:
May 16 (at Salishan)
June 20
July 18
August 15
September 19
October 17
November ?? (will coincide with Bench Bar Forum at WVV, date TBD)
December 19
New Member Packets. The bar used to distribute packets to new admittees and invited each section to include a flyer or other information about membership. This is no longer going to happen. There are now two options:
1. OSB will send new admittees a flyer regarding the section (at the section’s expense) advising of the ability to join free of charge for the first year.
Workers’ Compensation Section
Oregon State Bar
Minutes of 4/18/08 Meeting
Page Two
2. Request a list of new admittees and the section does its own recruiting (e.g., direct contact, direct mail, etc.). It was determined that a postcard would be the most efficient means of communication using this option.
Discussion was to consider utilizing both options. Suzanne Cushing will check on whether we are allowed to do both and will report back at the next meeting.
Nominating Committee. The following names were submitted for consideration of membership from the claimant’s bar (asterisks indicate the Nominating Committee’s recommendation for approval):
(*) Jim Edmunson
(*) Jackie Jacobson
Steve Schoenfeld
George Wall
Keith Semple
Member Vu moved to accept the recommendations and propose Mr. Edmunson and Ms. Jacobson to the section membership at Salishan for election to the Executive Committee. Member Johnson seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
The following names were submitted for consideration of membership from the defense bar (asterisks indicate the Nominating Committee’s recommendation for approval):
(*) Dennis VavRosky
(*) Adam Stamper
Ron Bohy
Norm Cole
Linda Conratt
Rodger Hepburn
John Klor
Ray Myers
Member Wren moved to accept the recommendations and propose Mr. VanRosky and Mr. Stamper to the section membership at Salishan for election to the Executive Committee. Member Riechers seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
Workers’ Compensation Section
Oregon State Bar
Minutes of 4/18/08 Meeting
Page Three
Chair-Elect Roy will notify persons selected by the EC for recommendation of election. Member Riechers will notify persons not selected.
Member Mundorff will fill the position previously discussed as needing to be filled by a WCB representative because of his recent appointment as an ALJ.
Officer Recommendations. Member Masters was chosen to be recommended to the section membership at Salishan for the position of Treasurer for calendar year 2009. Moved by Member Roy, seconded by Secretary Fisher, and approved unanimously.
Member Johnson was chosen to be recommended to the section membership at Salishan for the position of Secretary for calendar year 2009. Moved by Member Masters, seconded by Member Vu, and approved unanimously.
IV. TREASURER’S REPORT
The section’s balance as of 3/31/08 was $28,475.00. This reflects receipts from Salishan fees, but very few expenses.
The section paid its annual contribution to the Campaign for Equal Justice. Printing for Salishan is paid. There will be many more Salishan expenses to be paid, but the totals cannot be known until after the conference.
Member Carman will get a $100 gift certificate for Sally for her dedicated work to putting on the annual conference at Salishan. All other members of the Salishan committee will receive a $50 certificate with Amazon.com.
V. COMMITTEE REPORTS
A. Salishan
No new information. Everything is coming along smoothly and the conference is on track financially.
B. Communications
No Report.
Workers’ Compensation Section
Oregon State Bar
Minutes of 4/18/08 Meeting
Page Four
C. Daughtry Award
Member Vu reported the recommendation of ALJ G. Duffy Bloom. ALJ Bloom was approved unanimously as the recipient of the award.
D. Legislative
Member Roumell reported in writing and confirmed the following are members:
Chris Moore – co-chair
Steve Cotton- co-chair
Keith Semple
Thad Hettle
Linh Vu
Duffy Keckel
Bob Webber
The committee agreed to investigate the proposed legislation from WCD to expand their jurisdiction. Lou Savage at WCD is putting together a work group to draft legislation. The section’s legislative committee agreed to review it when drafted.
Member Roumell contacted the Michigan State Bar representative regarding the Medicare Set Asides and MSB’s proposed federal legislation to confirm a review process. The MSB was not interested in a letter from our section at this time but asked if we had information on what is triggering reviews in our state. She confirmed that CMS is strenuously opposed to the legislation. Statistics from Michigan indicate:
“Our incomplete survey suggests that the average settlement that concerns a CMS settlement is, roughly, $100,000.00 and that the set aside requests are roughly, 17%.”
If anybody as information to share about what is triggering CMS review, Member Roumell will gather the information and forward to the Michigan State Bar.
E. Bench Bar
No Report. Member Riechers reported this committee will likely gear up after Salishan.
Workers’ Compensation Section
Oregon State Bar
Minutes of 4/18/08 Meeting
Page Five
F. Race/Ethnic
M
Member Johnson reported the Racial-Ethnic Standing Committee met on April 14, 2008. Five of seven members were able to attend via telephone conference call. The matters discussed included the committee’s charge or mission, speaker ideas for the Bench-Bar and Salishan 2009 conferences, and diversity within the workers’ compensation section.
Questions were raised by committee members for the Executive Committee’s response. With regard to the committee’s mission:
(1) Does the EC want to expand the mission to consider all areas of diversity, including gender, religion, sexual orientation, etc. where the committee sees a need to improve access to justice for all groups, and not just racial and ethnic groups?
(2) Should the committee be renamed Access to Justice Committee or something with a broader responsibility than Racial-Ethnic?
(3) With regard to potential speakers for upcoming conferences, the committee had numerous ideas including:
a. inspirational speakers who had bridged the color barrier to compete successfully in the work world;
b. someone from an interpreter firm to discuss problems with cultural differences, interpretation problems at trial/how to avoid them, and medical examination problems from the interpreter’s view;
c. someone from WCD to discuss the trends in Oregon’s workplace demographics and how that may affect the practice of law and the division’s rule-making (including notices in several languages) in the next ten years;
d. an attorney panel to discuss the handling of cases involving interpreters and cultural differences and how those cases were effectively tried;
Workers’ Compensation Section
Oregon State Bar
Minutes of 4/18/08 Meeting
Page Six
e. someone from the Ombudsman’s office to discuss what happens to foreign speakers who are fired by their attorneys and seek help from the Ombudsman’s office (how does the system attempt to help them and with what results).
The committee is still exploring these ideas and follow-up has been divided among the committee members. The committee wants to know from the Salishan and Bench-Bar committees if there is a financial cost guideline the R-E committee needs to keep in mind when suggesting potential speakers.
With regard to the issue of diversity within the WC section. The committee wants to know if the section or OSB keeps a database of the racial/ethnic breakdown of the membership and should increasing (by recruiting) the diversity of the section be included in the committee’s mission.
The committee also discussed whether there is a need to improve the reliability of IME’s, WRME’s, arbiter exams and attending physician examinations relative to cultural sensitivity, language interpretation, and related issues. The committee will collect information and determine the need, if any.
The committee will provide proposals for the legislative/rules committee. The committee plans on meeting again in about 6 to 8 weeks. EC discussion and responses to the above questions at the next EC meeting (Salishan) would be greatly appreciated.
VI. OLD BUSINESS
No old business.
VII. NEW BUSINESS
There was no new business.
The meeting was adjourned at 1:32 p.m.