Maryland Workers Compensation Commission-Proof that Maryland Government Can Work
Government is often accused of being slow, unresponsive, uncaring and a huge bureaucracy. As a lawyer that represents Maryland residents who are injured on the job I am pleased to advise the public that the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission has done an outstanding job making sure that the injured employees of Maryland are treated courtesy and efficiently. The head of the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission is the Chairman, Karl Aumann and under his leadership he has made that government agency the most efficient and responsive unit I have ever had to deal with. The Maryland Workers Compensation Commission has nine Commissioners who sit every day hearing Maryland Workers’ Compensation cases including, Commissioners Jeffrey Weinberg, Patricia Adams, Lauren Godwin, Jeffrey Herwig, Delia Turano Schadt, Cynthia Miraglia, Maureen Quinn,Tracey Parker-Warren and Kathleen A. Evans,. These nine individuals have to be the hardest working State employees I have ever seen. Each Commissioner hears sometimes thirty cases a day and then must review medicals which are sometimes an inch or two thick if not more and then need to make a decision usually within the same day so that they can be prepared for the next day’s docket. While at one time the Commissioners duty was like a part time job where you would only have to work in the morning each one of these Commissioners have to put in a full eight hour day if not longer.
Chairman Aumann has clearly set up the situation where the parties including the employer, the insurer and the employees are put first and the State employees including Commissioners including the secretaries are always trying to accommodate the people that they serve. Whenever there is an emergency situation the Commissioners make special arrangements to hear cases quickly and the Commissioners have set up a fairly new process where if someone is not able to go back to the type of work they were doing before and needs vocational rehabilitation those issues can usually be resolved within a week. We are lucky as State citizens to have nine people who truly care about people. Each Commissioner gives back whatever they can in order to accommodate all parties and to do whatever is the best interest of the injured party under the law, unlike other court systems within the State the Commission has its own website where pleadings can be filed online and the files can be viewed on line which is a great help to all the parties in the system. The Commission has a duty to resolve problems quickly everyday and if an emergency arises.
I take my hat off to the last three Governors including Robert Ehrlich, Martin O’Malley and Larry Hogan who chose 9 commissioners and the chairman to sit on the Workers’ Compensation Commission who obviously care and are not just sitting there without the prestige or a paycheck. Hats off to Chairman Karl Aumann and all the Commissioners who sit on the board.