By Judge Pamela Johnson, Knoxville

A recent post alerted practitioners to changes in the Appeals Board’s rules. Not to be outdone, the Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims has also revised our rules.

The Court updates the rules to bring better clarity and efficiency to the system. The new rules will go into effect on December 21, 2023—the same day that the Board’s revised rules take effect. Yep, that’s tomorrow.

Like the Board, we too made stylistic changes, which won’t be highlighted in this article. (It’s the holiday season; you have enough to do.) Instead, we’ve summarized the noteworthy substantive changes below.

• The definition sections were renumbered. Definitions for Request for Expedited Hearing, Request for Hearing, and Request for Scheduling Hearing were deleted, and a new singular definition for Hearing Request was added to include all three hearing requests (expedited, scheduling, and status hearings). Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0800-02-21-.02.

• A party requesting an expedited hearing may supplement the request with additional documents no later than fifteen business days before the hearing date. Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0800-02-21-15(1).

• Medical records and/or bills are self-authenticating and not excluded by the rule against hearsay if signed by a medical doctor or accompanied by a form certifying that the records and/or bills are true and accurate. The judge may exclude medical records in response to a proper objection other than to authenticity or hearsay. Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0800-02-21-.16(2)(b).

• If a party opposing a dispositive motion seeks additional time to respond, the judge may without the need for an affidavit from the non-moving party grant additional, reasonable time for the non-moving party to respond, obtain affidavits, engage in discovery, or take depositions. (0800-02-21-.18(1)(d).

• At a compensation hearing, testimony may be taken by telephone or videoconference. To appear or testify by telephone or video, the party must file a motion seeking permission no later than ten business days before the hearing. Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0800-02-21-.22(8).

• The employer is required to pay the filing fee at the time of the settlement approval. A party may record the settlement approval with permission of the presiding judge and after notice to all parties. Tenn. Comp. R. & Regs. 0800-02-21-.23(11).

The entire set of rules with revisions will be posted on the Court website shortly after they are effective. As always, we recommend you occasionally review all of our rules, to stay current. Further, the Bureau program rules can be found here. These rules are also updated occasionally.

In the past, we’ve revised the rules every two years or so. Time flies. We’re always open to suggestions from practitioners on ways that our procedures can be improved, for the next time around in 2025. Contact our Court Clerk with your ideas.