On March 13, 2020, the Ohio Industrial Commission announced the following plan in response to the COVID-19 restrictions implemented by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Health:
All workers' compensation hearings will be continued on Monday, March 16 and Tuesday, March 17, 2020.
Until further notice, beginning Wednesday, March 18, the Commission will begin conducting hearings by telephone for the following issues: permanent total disability, temporary total disability or the termination of temporary total disability, wage loss, allowance and additional allowance.
Future dockets scheduled will consist of two hearings per hour and we will conduct six hours of dockets per day on the aforementioned issues.
On Wednesday, March 18, we will evaluate how best to proceed to determine if any change is needed. We will continue to evaluate the effectiveness and volume of hearings going forward until normal operations can resume.
The Industrial Commission will continue to work with our stakeholders throughout, to ensure accurate communication, along with utilizing both our public website and ICON.
Our attorneys and staff at Reminger are continuing to monitor these changes and will keep our clients updated as to all individual hearings impacted by this policy. This is a fluid situation, and we expect further changes to occur. If you have questions related to this policy and/or its impact on a particular claim or issue, please feel free to contact one of our workers' compensation attorneys.