WI State Budget Seeks to Eliminate Review Board

Madison, WI (WorkersCompensation.com) – On February 8 of this year, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker submitted Assembly Bill 64, which is the “Executive Budget Bill.” According the Bill’s introduction, it “contains the governor's recommendations for appropriations for the 2017-2019 fiscal biennium.” Comprising 989 pages, the Bill spells out the spending changes proposed by the governor. This year’s budget contained a surprise in that Governor Walker proposed the elimination of the state’s Labor and Industry Review Commission (LIRC).

As it stands now, decisions on workers’ compensation cases (and a variety of other employment-related cases) are initially handled by an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ). If the losing party does not agree with the decision of the ALJ, an appeal can be filed with the LIRC, which is a three-person review board whose members are appointed by the governor. Much like an appellate court, the LIRC has the power to either confirm, overturn or remand the issue presented to it. Decisions of the LIRC can be appealed to the state’s circuit courts.

“LIRC has been around in one form or another for as long as the work comp system has been enacted,” said Douglas Feldman, a partner in the firm of Lindner & Marsack and a longtime workers’ compensation attorney, in an email to WorkersCompensation.com. “They have developed a body of law that is followed and somewhat precedential,” he continued. According to Feldman, eliminating the LIRC “allegedly will speed up the appellate process but the alternative system has not been fully laid out and is unclear.”

According to the Bill, instead of review by the LIRC, there will be “administrative review of administrative decisions relating to worker’s [sic] compensation by the administrator of the Division of Hearings and Appeals.” The Bill does not go into more detail.

Feldman does not think eliminating the LIRC is a wise decision, however.

“It is very important,” he said. “It’s part of the checks and balances. It keeps the ALJ’s in check. Huge mistake in my opinion to eliminate it,” he concluded.

As of now, Governor Walker’s idea to eliminate the LIRC is merely a proposal, and Feldman does not yet have a sense of whether or not it will be approved. It’s a “developing issue,” he said, noting that the Bill “just came out last week.”

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