By MATT CHANDLER
Buffalo Law Journal

To many area lawyers, the new "rocket docket" regulations intended to streamline the resolution of worker's compensation cases in New York are a path paved with good intentions - but promising a hellish future for both claimants and carriers.

Set to take effect Jan. 1, the regulations, introduced by the administration of Gov. Eliot Spitzer in 2007, aim to cut the time it takes to resolve worker's compensation cases from a current average of 200 days to 90 days. Proponents say that will mean quicker medical treatment for injured workers and less time without cash while they are unable to work.

While that may sound good in principle, Giles Manias, a solo practitioner in Buffalo and current president of the Bar Association of Erie County, has concerns about the rocket docket, which he believes "actually creates more legal procedures" than are required now. He points to the extensive amount of paperwork that has to be filled out by the examining physician under the proposed changes and the rigid filing deadlines.

He feels the changes would have a dire impact on claimants, and wrote a letter to Gov. David Paterson with another lawyer, Phillip Scaffidi, criticizing the regulations.

"There are already a number of doctors who won't treat comp cases because of the hassle of trying to get paid, and I think with this, you are going to see more just wash their hands of workers comp cases altogether," he said. "People who are involved with the system on both sides (representing claimants and carriers) are pretty much against it because they understand it's another needless governmental step to make the system look like it is more concerned than it really is."

John Sciortino, co-chair of the New York Workers Compensation Alliance, says the organization's members have voiced their displeasure loud and clear over the impending implementation of the regulations.

"A lot of what the rocket docket proposes to do can be accomplished by a more stringent enforcement of the current regulations and laws," he said. "We are concerned that there is too much bureaucracy and it is going to result in a slowdown rather than a speed up in the resolution of cases."

But Brian Keegan, speaking on behalf of the New York State Worker's Compensation Board, said that claim has already been proven wrong.

"We have been informally implementing these regulations throughout the year, and we are already down to about (a case-resolution average of) 90 days," he said.

Keegan said the board has been working closely with the Medical Society of the State of New York to insure a smooth implementation of the regulations.

He dismissed the comments from Manias and others, saying, "At every stage of development of this rocket docket, these claimant attorneys have warned that the sky is going to fall, and the only thing that has really fallen is the time it takes to resolve a controverted claim," he said.

Tina Hassler, a senior associate with the Buffalo-based law firm of Kenney Shelton Liptak Nowak LLP, said that while she agrees that the rocket docket does "front load" the work that lawyers, claimants and doctors have to do, if the new rules help ease the burden of drawn-out cases, they're worthwhile.

"The carriers used to just controvert a claim because they didn't have a medical record. Now, with the new forms and the information being required on the front end, I think you'll see less cases being controverted," she explained.

One of the strongest benefits of rocket docket, said Hassler, who primarily represents insurance companies, is a provision that allows for injured workers to collect benefits once their case has been challenged - something they were previously unable to do,

"If (rocket docket) works pursuant to the way they say it is going to, it is going to be a good step in improving this process," she said.