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Driving under the influence

Yesterday I was driving back from Modesto and I noticed a CHP officer out of the corner of my eye. 1  My first instinct is always to double check my speed.

However, yesterday afternoon I noticed this officer was on his cell, left elbow propped up on the edge of the window, yakking away, while tailgating a semi in the slow lane.

Not wanting to get pulled over for driving under the influence of irony, I didn’t take a picture with my phone.

BTW, I’ve got to be in San Francisco this afternoon – stop me and say hello!

1. Photo courtesy of OregonDOT [↩]

Will it be a trifecta????

My personal best is two walk through settlements at two different WCAB district offices in a single morning.  Tomorrow I am going to attempt three walk through settlements at three different WCAB district offices in a single morning.  My plan is to start my day at the San Jose WCAB at 8:00AM, hit the Oakland WCAB afterward, jet to San Francisco, and then return to the office.  Google Maps tells me that this is going to be 134 miles over 2 hours and 39 minutes. 12

As I mentioned before, there’s a lot of things that can go wrong – traffic, long walk through lines, a broken photocopier. 3

But, I’ve done what I can to ensure this works.  I’ve called the other parties, have a checklist of everything I need to do in the order I need to do it, my cell phone is charged up4 , phone numbers for opposing counsel and my clients hand, GPS charged up, prepared Minutes of Hearing, Document Cover Sheets, Document Separator Sheets, Awards, and Orders. 56

If you happen to be in San Jose, Oakland, or San Francisco today stop me and say hello.  (And – pretty please may I cut ahead of you in line?)

Lastly, I’ll be checking back here throughout the day, so how about leaving me a word of encouragement in the comments?7

1. If I had another walk through to do in Santa Rosa, I would be planning a different order. [↩]
2. Photo courtesy of Matthew Armstrong [↩]
3. Or, heaven forbid, EAMS could be working tomorrow.  THAT would foul me right up. [↩]
4. And a back up cell phone charged up too! [↩]
5. I even sacrificed a giant sequoia sapling as an offering to EAMS. [↩]
6. I’m even bringing two extra settlements just in case one falls through!  Although, this is really due to coincidence than meticulous planning… [↩]
7. I think live blogging the trip might be a bit much – but we’ll see. [↩]

I received a few handouts regarding the new EAMS system while at the San Francisco WCAB yesterday. The WCAB SFO only had a limited number of these documents, so I’ve scanned my copy for everyone else’s benefit.

• Learn More About EAMS (3 pages)
  • Revised 08-21-2008
  • Paper filings, CD filings of pre-scanned documents
• Priority of Actions After EAMS Go-Live (1 page)
  • Walk throughs are second to last in priority!
• EAMS is Ready, Are You? (4 pages)
  • Revised 08-01-2008
  • Discussion of training, OCR, and E-forms

I also learned some interesting things about EAMS:

1. Everyone knows that EAMS and the WCAB will reject your filings if you’re not registered with EAMS. Did you know that the Judges aren’t sure if EAMS will reject your filings if the employer is not registered?
2. If a party brings physical paper exhibits, Judges will only be accepting the most important documents for filing (since the WCAB will be doing the scanning)
   • The parties will be expected to bring any possibly relevant exhibits. Any documents not accepted will be returned to the parties or shredded.
   • Judges will mainly be accepting just permanent and stationary reports.
3. A party bringing a CD burned with scanned exhibits, will need to submit all medical files and documents which are typically required to be filed with the WCAB.
   • They will will not have the option of only submitting the most relevant exhibits.
4. For the time being, normal walk through procedures are gone. Any new case activation would not be assigned a Board number until approximately 3 am after the day of submission. Be ready to drop off your walk throughs the day before you want to obtain approval.
5. The EAMS forms haven’t been approved by the Office of Administrative Law and won’t be mandatory until approved.
6. For the time being, every Board will have a telephone conference each morning starting at 8 am with their “command center.”
7. The decision to go ahead with EAMS starting August 25, 2008 was only made on August 22, 2008!