It’s easy and fast to file companion case DORs, but it’s not all sunshine and roses. There’s definitely hurdles.
It’s easy and fast to add companion cases to your DOR filing – but you may find that it’s not quite as successful at actually calendaring your cases. Even a failed companion case DOR may help preserve your lien – it provides evidence that you have attempted to pursue your lien. Here’s a couple things to keep in mind when filing a DOR on more than one ADJ case.
First of all, it goes without saying that if any one of the cases listed in your companion case DOR is already scheduled for a hearing, your companion case DOR will fail. Be sure to check your case numbers for current hearings before you start your DOR.
Secondly, INCOMPLETE HEARINGS are still common and will cause DORs to fail if any one of the cases listed in your companion case DOR has an incomplete hearing. You’ll get an error message that says “Cannot schedule a hearing for a case when there is already a scheduled hearing.” But you don’t see an upcoming hearing… you can make an educated guess that a PAST hearing is INCOMPLETE if you see a recent hearing notice in your EDEX data but there hasn’t been a hearing complete notice YET. If you aren’t using EDEX data to track your cases, you can still make the same guess but it will be less educated because EAMS public case data will not show you past hearings.
What do you do if you have an ADJ case with an incomplete hearing? If the hearing was within the last 30 days, simply wait for the hearing to be completed. If it’s been longer than 30 days, contact us. EDEX Support will follow up with WCAB.