(a) There is hereby established a Compensation Order Review Board (“Board”) that shall consist of 5 members as follows:

(1) The Chief Judge of the Office of Hearings and Adjudication (“OHA”) within the Department of Employment Services who shall serve as Chairperson; and

(2) Four Administrative Law Judges from the OHA, who shall:

(A) Be appointed by the Chairperson;

(B) Have received an overall rating of satisfactory or above in his or her most recent performance review; and

(C) Be a member in good standing of the OHA.

(b) The Chairperson shall have the authority to create from among the members of the Board one or more Compensation Order Review Panels (“panel”) which shall:

(1) Consist of 3 members and may include the Chairperson;

(2) Decide matters before it by majority vote; and

(3) Be prohibited from discussing the compensation order with the Administrative Law Judge who issued the compensation order while the matter is undergoing review.

(c) The Chairperson shall, within 7 days of an application for review being filed, create and assign a panel to review the application for review; provided, that no member of the panel is the Administrative Law Judge who issued the compensation order that is under review.

(d) The panel shall:

(1) Review the compensation order for legal sufficiency;

(2) Dispose of the matter under review by issuing an order affirming the compensation order; reversing the compensation order, in whole or in part, and amending the order based on the panel’s findings, or by remanding the order to the issuing Administrative Law Judge for further review; except, that:

(A) The panel shall affirm a compensation order that is based upon substantial evidence and is in accordance with this chapter and other applicable laws and regulations and shall not disturb factual findings contained in the compensation order that are supported by substantial evidence; and

(B) Any reversal, in whole or in part, shall be supported by a written order, which shall contain the legal and factual basis for the reversal, and may amend the compensation order, in whole or in part, or remand the matter to the issuing Administrative Law Judge for additional findings of fact or conclusions of law and the issuance of a compensation order on remand; and

(3) Make its disposition within 30 days of being assigned the application for review.

(e) A party aggrieved by the compensation order on remand may appeal it in the same manner as a compensation order.

(July 1, 1980, D.C. Law 3-77, § 22a; as added Dec. 7, 2004, D.C. Law 15-205, § 1102(a), 51 DCR 8441.)

For temporary (90 day) addition, see § 1102(a) of Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Support Emergency Act of 2004 (D.C. Act 15-486, August 2, 2004, 51 DCR 8236).

For temporary (90 day) addition, see § 1102(a) of Fiscal Year 2005 Budget Support Congressional Review Emergency Act of 2004 (D.C. Act 15-594, October 26, 2004, 51 DCR 11725).

Short title of subtitle J of title I of Law 15-205: Section 1101 of D.C. Law 15-205 provided that subtitle J of title I of the act may be cited as the Workers’ Compensation Administrative Reform and Anti-Fraud Amendment Act of 2004.