With all of the lien claimants crawling out of the woodwork and the sheer number of lien conferences being set, it helps to be prepared! SB 863 imposed a lien-filing fee and statute of limitations, which was intended to significantly reduce the number of liens filed.

However, in anticipation of these changes, we saw an astronomical influx of lien filings in 2012. According to the WCIRB Actuarial Committee Report on March 20, 2013, more liens were filed in the Los Angeles area in the last three months of 2012 than were filed statewide in all of 2011 Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 − an increase of 171.2%!

There were 691,203 medical liens filed in 2012, 135.9% more than the 292,982 filed in 2011. There were 206,119 medical-legal liens filed last year, more than five times the 39,569 filed in 2011. And, as expected in anticipation of the upcoming interpreter fee schedule limitations, interpreter liens increased fourfold to 123,621 liens filed last year, compared to 28,721 in 2011.

In our experience, judges are therefore willing to properly follow the regulations and dismiss liens where lien claimants have failed to pay the activation fee prior to the date of the hearing and where lien claimants fail to appear and have been properly served with notice. See Soto v. Marathon Industries, Inc. (3/12/13 - ADJ 7407927). Therefore, before you appear at a lien conference, here are some of the steps you need to take so that you can get to that successful result of an order dismissing the liens:

1. Be certain you have served the Notice of Lien Conference on all parties and service providers. The Electronic Adjudication Management System will reflect all of the parties, but adding medical providers, interpreters and other vendors who provided services on your cases will help ensure you have covered all possible claimants, should they file a lien just before the Conference.

2. Bring a Notice of Disallowance for Failure to Pay Activation Fee and Notice of Intention to Dismiss for Failure to Appear (NOI) for each lien claimant you may seek dismissal of, including your EAMS separator sheets and a copy of your Proof of Service demonstrating knowledge of the hearing.

3. Assuming you obtain an NOI from the board at a lien conference, here are the steps you need to take under the Regulations in order to officially obtain dismissal of those liens:

a) Serve the minutes of hearing and any NOIs on the proper parties. Note that the minutes and NOIs must be served within 10 business days from the hearing.
b) Depending on the location of the lien claimant, set diaries for either 20 days from the date of service (if the lien claimant’s address is in California) or 25 days (if the lien claimant’s address is out of state).
c) When the time limit has expired, confirm whether a lien claimant has responded.
d) If you confirm that you have not received any correspondence from the lien claimant, you need to complete the following:

• A “declaration,” stating under penalty of perjury that you have not received any correspondence from the lien claimant.
• A proposed “Order Dismissing Lien Claim."

Each board may have slightly different rules, but generally speaking, these documents are not allowed on a “walk-through” basis. In some venues, however, many judges will execute them if you simply bring them into court with you. However, if you cannot obtain an Order in person, follow the e-file or file and serve rules for your board so that a task is created for judicial signature and service of an Order Disallowing a Lien.

Kimberly Dyess is a managing shareholder in the San Diego branch of the workers' compensation defense firm of Grancell, Stander, Reubens, Thomas, and Kinsey. This column was reprinted with permission from the firm's quarterly newsletter.