By Judge Pamela Johnson, Knoxville

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.” – Pat Riley

“On occasion we need to make a second effort – and a third effort, and a fourth effort, and as many degrees of effort as may be required to accomplish what we strive to achieve.”  –  Thomas S. Monson

The Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims strives to meet its stated purpose: “[to] ensur[e] fairness to all parties and [to] improv[e] the efficiency of the system.” To that end, we make second, third, and fourth efforts to improve our rules, forms and templates to improve the efficiency of the system.

When I last blogged, I informed you that we created an Addendum to PBD (for Death Claims Only). The Addendum’s purpose is to assist the mediator and judge by identifying the claimant(s) or potential dependent(s) in the death claim.

We’ve returned to the drafting table and created templates for settlements in death claims. Go to the Court’s webpage and scroll to “Downloadable Templates” to find them.

We realized redrafting our previous settlement templates to fit the circumstances of an accepted or disputed death claim was not always easy for the parties. We think you’ll find these new templates easier to complete.

We’ll continue to strive to improve. So stay tuned for our next improvement.