Voice From the Chair

by Jack Goodchild

By the time you read this, our national election will have taken place and we will be in the midst of sorting out the impact of one of the most important elections in our lifetime. Hopefully, we will all come together afterwards to put our country and state on a course to heal and build a new reality that serves all of us.

However, we will not be done with the pandemic and our lives will still be altered and limited in ways we could not anticipate a year ago. Our society and our legal system are still adjusting to our altered reality and this will continue.

Our own workers’ compensation system has already evolved and is continuing to do so. In many ways, our system is doing better than the civil justice system which has seen prolonged delays and is still gearing up for the remote administration of justice.

In workers’ compensation, we have had a re-institution of the court calendar. We have, conferences and trials by conference call and some trials by the Lifesize system. Approval of settlements and access to judges regarding same have improved as well. The administration and staff and judges are all to be thanked and applauded for rising to the needs of this stressful situation.

In the meantime, we are all becoming familiar with Zoom and other platforms and have been the beneficiaries of many programs including webinars presented by our workers’ compensation committee and its education sub-committee. You are invited to regularly access our website to glean the latest activities and programs available to you throughout the year.

As a committee, we held our first virtual strategic planning meetings in November. We welcomed new members and planned out activities and programs for the coming year. As always, our educational programs include members of the community and we invite all to offer their expertise and services to our committee so as to be included in programs during the years to come.

In particular, we wish to accentuate our focus on inclusivity. We very much want to be a vehicle of expression for all members of our community.  If you are a member of a minority or any underserved point of view or interest, we very much want to include your voice in our publications and programs. Please reach out to us.

As always, I look forward to hearing from you and entreat you to feel that this committee is your committee and we can’t be all that we can be without your participation. Until the next E-News, please stay safe and be well!