It’s Wednesday again, dear readers, but not just any Wednesday – it’s the first Wednesday in June.

What does that mean?  Not much, really, except that the WCAB announced last week that the telephonic appearance procedures will continue through the month of June.  Electronic filing will continue as before as well.

The one notable exception is that the Board will now allow up to 3 lien conference per judge’s calendar session per day.  Once those slots are filled up, the remaining lien conferences will be continued.

From my own experience, it looks like the hearings are becoming fairly streamlined – the attorneys appear to be getting pretty comfortable with appearing and addressing issues over the phone; the Judges have been saint-like in their patience and flexibility to make the technology work, and there is a growing trend of preparing in advance of the actual hearing.

Will this become the norm?  Will we limit Board appearances to live testimony under oath, and conduct all other hearings by phone?

If that’s the case, will we also see the pooling of Judges state wide?  Will we see impacted Boards getting assistance for status conference and MSCs from Boards with more availability?

The root of the necessity for these changes is unfortunate, of course, but not unlike a cow kicking over a lantern and causing the need to modernize a city, perhaps this innovation will make practice and resolution of workers’ compensation faster, more efficient, and, at least as to the litigation aspect, less costly.

So, dear readers, what do you think?  When we all feel comfortable drinking Coronas again, shall we return to the hustle and bustle of the WCAB?  Or will we live out our nightmares of [telephonically] going to court in our underwear?

Your humble blogger is looking forward to see what the future brings.

Happy Wednesday!