The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board has issued a notice of public hearing regarding proposed amendments to its Rules of Practice and Procedure. The primary purpose of this rulemaking is to repeal the Rules of the Court Administrator and to move the non-duplicative ones into the WCAB’s Rules, with some largely non-substantive changes. These changes are authorized by Assembly Bill 1426 (Stats. 2011, ch. 639 [AB 1426]), which eliminated the position of Court Administrator and deemed the Court Administrator’s regulations to be regulations of the WCAB. The rulemaking also proposes to make largely non-substantive changes to a limited number of existing WCAB Rules.

The public hearing will start at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, September 17 in the Santa Barbara Room, Basement Level, of the Hiram Johnson State Office Building at 455 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102. Members of the public may also submit written comment on the proposed Rules amendments until 5 p.m. that day.

The WCAB’s notice of the proposed rulemaking, the text of the proposed regulations, and the initial statement of reasons can be found at the board’s website.

Although equal weight will be accorded to oral and written comments, the WCAB prefers written comments to oral testimony and prefers written comments submitted by e-mail. If written comments are timely submitted, it is not necessary to present oral testimony at the public hearing.

Comments may be submitted by e-mail to WCABRules@dir.ca.gov or they may be mailed to: Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, Attention: Annette Gabrielli, Regulations Coordinator, P.O. Box 429459, San Francisco CA 94142-9459.

The WCAB will consider all timely public comments and it encourages all interested members of the workers’ compensation community to participate in this important process.