Like most lawyers, I am inundated with emails, newsletters and other information about the
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| Post by Founding Partner Stan Lacy |
practice of law. Rarely can I give most of this material more than a cursory glance, but something caught my eye in of of the SC Bar’s March E-Blasts. I saw the headline “Workers’ Compensation Commission Survey Results.” I clicked on the link and found a 2013 Workers’ Compensation Commission survey addressing legal skills, impartiality, judicial temperament, and promptness. I later learned the South Carolina Bar Workers’ Compensation Section Council engineered the survey to allow lawyers to evaluate commissioners like they do other judges.
With one or two exceptions, more than half of the people who responded to the survey felt the commissioners have an excellent or good grasp of the knowledge of the law and its application. Most of the commissioners were deemed to have effective settlement skills and more than 70% felt the Commission was impartial. Some who responded to the survey felt there might be some partiality toward injured workers, but all of the commissioners scored well on being impartial to attorneys and litigants, and having no sexual, racial, or ethnic biases.
All of the commissioners scored well on judicial temperament and were deemed to be courteous to litigants, witnesses, and attorneys. Likewise, our commissioners were thought to be prompt in making judicial decisions and scored well on punctuality and diligence.
For those of us who have been in the system for decades and have experienced the wide spectrum of personalities and idiosyncrasies of the many commissioners who have served, the survey is a welcomed development. The SC Bar distributed the survey to the entire Workers’ Compensation Section, which includes both plaintiff and defense lawyers. With approximately 140 responding, it is a reflection of across-the-board opinions. That said, I believe the survey demonstrates we have a Commission in which we can have confidence. It obviously enjoys the respect of the majority of people who responded to the survey.
Here is the full 2013 Workers’ Compensation Commissioners Survey.
– Stan
