As you may know, the Department of Workers' Claims is in the process of implementing an electronic filing system called Litigation Management Software (LMS). They have started training attorneys and paralegals and office staff. The system went live on Monday, October 10, 2016, with the date of July 1, 2017, being the enforcement of all documents to be filed electronically. The KyCRA Board along with several member reporters have been diligently working towards a resolution to prevent copies of transcripts, either depositions or hearings, to be printed or viewed by anyone who has not paid for the same. 

After various conversations and meetings with the Department, we received the official word earlier this week on this matter. All court reporters in Kentucky, when they take a deposition or a hearing, are required to file their transcripts in the LMS system. If the reporter does the filing, then the transcript will be blocked from printing or reviewing by anyone other than Department employees or the ALJ. The system will generate a notice indicating that the transcript has been filed and who the reporter is. If the reporter gives the transcript to the taking attorney to file, then anyone will have access to the transcript. You don't want to do that. 

The Department will be conducting training for the reporters sometime in the near future. If a reporter does anything in workers' compensation cases, they should plan to take the training. The Board will be notified when the Department is ready to conduct the training and when registration begins so that we can notify our members. We plan to provide CEU's for this training and perhaps can schedule it in conjunction with our spring seminar. We will keep you posted. This is a great win for all of us. 

I want to thank the entire KyCRA Board for their hard work and also the member reporters, Melody Curtis and Susan Toles, who helped in this endeavor. Please acknowledge your appreciation to all of them. By working together, we were able to bring about a resolution to this potential problem. As President of KyCRA, I really do want to express my gratitude for all of those who worked very hard in this process. Thank you so much!!!!! 

Clarice H. Howard, President