Bill Text: NY S04161 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced


Bill Title: Prohibits cases from being closed without a hearing or written stipulation; requires a stenographic record of all hearings held; requires minutes and decisions to be provided to the injured worker in their native language.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 20-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - REFERRED TO LABOR [S04161 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S04161-Introduced.html



                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          4161

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    February 3, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens.  RAMOS, BAILEY, COMRIE, GOUNARDES, HARCKHAM, HOYL-
          MAN-SIGAL, JACKSON,  KENNEDY,  MAY,  MAYER,  MYRIE,  PARKER,  PERSAUD,
          RIVERA,  SALAZAR, SANDERS, STAVISKY -- read twice and ordered printed,
          and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor

        AN ACT to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation to  prohibit-
          ing  cases  from being closed without a hearing or written stipulation
          and requiring a stenographic record  of  all  hearings  held;  and  to
          repeal certain provisions of such law relating thereto

          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section 1.  Subdivision 2-b of section 25 of the workers' compensation
     2  law is REPEALED and subdivision 2-c is renumbered subdivision 2-b.
     3    § 2.  Paragraphs (b) and (c) of subdivision 3 of  section  25  of  the
     4  workers' compensation law, as amended by chapter 61 of the laws of 1986,
     5  are amended to read as follows:
     6    (b)  Nothing herein shall limit the right of the board in a particular
     7  case to hold a hearing and  make  an  award  in  accordance  with  other
     8  provisions  of  this  chapter.  No  case shall be closed and no decision
     9  shall be issued without a hearing upon notice to all parties  interested
    10  and without giving to all such parties an opportunity to be heard.
    11    (c)  The board shall keep an accurate stenographic record of all hear-
    12  ings held and provide the minutes, at no cost, to the injured worker and
    13  their representative in the native language of the injured worker.   All
    14  decisions  shall  be  issued  to  the  injured  worker  in  their native
    15  language.  Whenever a hearing must be continued or adjourned because the
    16  carrier or employer has engaged in dilatory tactics or exhibited  unjus-
    17  tified  lack  of preparedness, the board shall impose a penalty of twen-
    18  ty-five dollars to be paid to the fund created  by  subdivision  two  of
    19  section one hundred fifty-one of this chapter and shall in addition make
    20  an award of seventy-five dollars payable to the injured worker or his or
    21  her  dependants.  Dilatory  tactics may include but shall not be limited

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD00722-01-3

        S. 4161                             2

     1  to:  failing to subpoena medical witnesses or to secure an order to show
     2  cause as directed by the referee, failing to bring proper files, failing
     3  to appear, failing to produce witnesses or  documents  after  they  have
     4  been  requested by the referee or examiner or as directed by the hearing
     5  notice, unnecessarily protracting the production of evidence, or  engag-
     6  ing in a pattern of delay which unduly delays resolution, except that no
     7  penalty  shall  be  imposed nor award made under this subdivision if the
     8  carrier or employer produces evidence sufficient to excuse  its  conduct
     9  to the satisfaction of the referee.
    10    § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
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