Workers' Compensation Board outlines multi‑year plan to move from paper filings to electronic case system

Joy Doherty, chair of the Workers' Compensation Board, told the Management and Labor Advisory Committee on Nov. 6 that the board is beginning a multi‑year effort to move from a largely paper-driven process to an electronic litigation case‑management and e‑filing system. “We do believe that this will be a about a 4 year effort. We started last year, and we are hoping to be complete by 2028,” Doherty said.

Doherty said the modernization aims to improve access and timeliness by allowing unrepresented workers electronic access to filings and by enabling faster transmission of judge orders and settlement documents to parties. She told the committee the board received $650,000 in legislative start‑up funding and has secured stage‑gate 1 approval; the board is currently progressing through stage‑gate 2, which must be completed before issuing an RFP to market. “All of those documents are then printed out and placed in paper files,” Doherty said of the current process, describing large paper exhibits that will be handled electronically under the new system.

Doherty outlined governance and compliance steps the board must take as part of modernization, including creating a statute-and-rule advisory review to identify rule and statutory language that will need revision for e‑filing and electronic rule notifications. She said the board will solicit a quality‑control vendor and hire organizational change‑management staff as the project moves toward vendor selection and implementation.

Doherty closed by inviting further questions and offered to return with updates as the effort advances toward later stage gates and stakeholder engagement.