The Office of Administrative Courts (OAC) in the Department of Personnel & Administration is Colorado's centralized administrative court system with authority to decide disputes regarding workers' compensation, human services, licensing, and a variety of other cases. OAC conducts administrative hearings for a number of state agencies, including the Division of Workers' Compensation. OAC offices have administrative law judges and staff members who are responsible for handling the workers' compensation hearings from the time of application for hearing until final disposition of the hearing. Over the course of a year, OAC receives many thousands of applications for hearings on workers' compensation claims.
The need to modify rule 1 CCR 104-3 Rule 21 is so it comports with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000d to 2000d-7 and 28 C.R.R, Part 42, Subpart C (Title VI) concerning limited English proficient (LEP) Individuals.
To avoid any inconsistency for litigants it is imperative that the rule change go into effect immediately on an emergency basis.
The executive Director is exercising her rulemaking authority as granted under §24-4-103, C.R.S. et seq., §24-30-1001, C.R.S. et seq., as well as §24-50.3-104(3)(a) and (3)(g), C.R.S. , to track changes to the Workers' Compensation Act (§8-40-101 et seq., C.R.S.).
This emergency Rule shall go into effect May 24, 2019. Pursuant to §24-4-103(6) C.R.S., an emergency rule can only be in effect for a maximum of 120 days. A subsequent permanent rulemaking proceeding will be announced in a separate notice.
Click on the appropriate link below to view the Emergency Justification, Basis & Purpose, Redline, and Changes Accepted versions of the emergency rule.