By Judge Audrey Headrick, Chattanooga

Do you recall the 1993 movie Groundhog Day starring Bill Murray and Andi McDowell? It’s memorable because Bill Murray’s character humorously relives the same day over and over.

Like Groundhog Day, the Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims also experiences a reoccurring situation. We routinely see file “dumps” of medical records.

Surprisingly, it isn’t only self-represented litigants who file voluminous medical records. Attorneys, including those who regularly appear before us, do the same thing. We sometimes hear that they’ve done so “out of an abundance of caution.” But to us, it simply suggests that … you haven’t read the records.

We don’t need 2,000 pages filed in any case. What we do need are records that give statements from doctors on causation or medical necessity, for example. Those records are much fewer in number.

We’re not making this request solely because we don’t want to read 2,000 pages of records (we really don’t). But also, it costs taxpayers money to electronically store these records—which might never actually be useful.

To break this reoccurring time loop, please consider the following refresher tips on filing medical records (Note: I previously wrote on this in June 2018).

• Cull the medical records, as suggested above. Jointly cull them if possible. Remove duplicative or irrelevant records (fax cover sheets, boilerplate discharge instructions, blood work results, appointment reminders, etc. See Love v. Delta Faucet Co.
• File one set of medical records, organized, paginated, and with a table of contents under Rule 0800-02-21-.16(2)(c). The table of contents page must include the name of the provider, the dates of service, and page numbers. Self-represented litigants are exempt from this requirement.
• Culling medical records applies to deposition exhibits. Also, when you have multiple medical depositions, please don’t attach the same set of records to each deposition transcript as exhibits.
• Culling medical records applies to records obtained with a medical record certification and/or a custodian affidavit. For example, we don’t need copies of insurance cards, the employee’s driver’s license, or records unrelated to the issues in the case.
• For motions, only attach medical records as exhibits relevant to the motion, and apply the rules above.

If you don’t follow the rules, Court staff will likely contact you and ask that you re-file the records. Problem solved. But if you don’t re-file them, it could result in sanctions under Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure 16.06 and/or penalties under Tennessee Code Annotated section 50-6-118(9). No one wants that.

In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray’s character eventually broke the time loop and moved on to happier times. Let’s do the same thing with the filing of voluminous medical records.