EAMS and JET File explained: how filing works at the California WCAB

Every California workers' comp case before the WCAB lives in EAMS, the Electronic Adjudication Management System. How your firm gets documents into it, and how quickly they're accepted, shapes a lot of daily work: opening cases, filing declarations of readiness, settlements and liens. This guide explains the filing methods and the rules that most often cause rejections. It is general information, not legal advice.

What EAMS is

EAMS is the DWC's case management system for the workers' comp courts. DWC and WCAB staff went live on it in August 2008, replacing paper files. When an Application for Adjudication is filed, the case gets an ADJ number, which identifies it in every later filing.

Anyone can look a case up through the DWC's public information case search. It shows limited information, such as parties and upcoming hearings, and confidential case information is available only to authorized users. Firms also use the public search to pay lien filing fees.

The ADJ number goes on every later filing in the case. A client with more than one injury, such as a specific injury and a cumulative trauma, usually has more than one ADJ number, and each document has to go to the right one. Keep every ADJ number on the client's file with the injury it belongs to, so nobody files a settlement or a declaration of readiness in the wrong case.

Three ways to file

The DWC describes the two electronic methods as the fastest. Paper forms are processed by scanning, so typed entries in the right boxes matter.

JET File: the three routes

The DWC lists three ways to JET file:

1. Authorized vendor software. Confirm the software is from an authorized vendor and submit the Excel portion of the JET File trading partner agreement.
2. A third-party filer. A vendor files on your behalf. You read the business rules and trading partner agreement and sign the vendor's form.
3. Your own transmission process. You must file at least 100 forms of certain types a year, build XML transmission code to the DWC's specifications, pass transmission testing and submit the trading partner agreement.

The DWC publishes a list of authorized JET File vendors. It includes software vendors such as MerusCase, EdexCloud and CompData, and third-party filers such as Gemini Legal, EquiCopy and MerusCase. The DWC says it doesn't endorse or guarantee any vendor; vendors are listed because they signed the trading partner agreement and passed testing.

What JET File accepts

The DWC's JET File page lists:

• Application for Adjudication of Claim
• Declaration of Readiness to Proceed, and to Expedited Trial
• Compromise and Release
• Stipulations with Request for Award
• Notice and Request for Allowance of Lien
• Golden Rod lien (EDD only)
• Supplemental lien form and Labor Code 4903.05(c) declaration
• Answer to Application for Adjudication of Claim
• Request for Summary Rating Determination of Primary Treating Physician
• Request for Consultative Rating
• The Unstructured Form, for other documents on the DWC's document titles list

Petitions, correspondence and most other documents go in through the Unstructured Form with an approved document title. E-forms filers are told to use only titles from that list.

UANs and the unprocessed document queue

EAMS identifies claims administrators, lien claimants, law firms and representatives by a Uniform Assigned Name (UAN). The DWC's FAQ says filers must use the exact UAN on every form. A filing that doesn't match the UAN list goes into the Unprocessed Document Queue, where a clerk may fix a simple error or return the filing, which delays it.

Name or address changes go through the DWC's Central Registration Unit. E-forms filers whose batches often fail into the queue can have their access limited until they complete extra training.

Liens and the lien fee

Liens must be filed electronically, by e-form or JET File. A medical treatment or medical-legal lien filed on or after January 1, 2013 needs the $150 filing fee, paid through the DWC's public information case search before filing. Our liens guide covers the declarations and deadlines.

Choosing how your firm files

Questions to ask before you pick a filing method or vendor:

• How many applications, DORs, settlements and liens do you file a month?
• Does your case management system build JET packets from case data, or do you re-key forms?
• Who sees rejections, and how fast? MerusCase, for example, documents packet statuses of Submitted, Accepted and Rejected, with the rejection reason in a transmission log.
• Are your UANs and your opponents' UANs stored on each case, exactly as EAMS has them?
• Who signs, and how is the signature captured?
• Does the vendor file the QME panel request too? MerusCase documents e-filing the QME Form 106 panel request.
• What does it cost per filing, per month or per user?

E-forms filers need a logon and must complete the DWC's introductory training and pass a quiz (15 of 20) before the primary administrator gets credentials.

A filing checklist

Before anything goes to EAMS:

• The ADJ number is right, and the case is the one you mean, especially for clients with more than one injury.
• Every party name matches the UAN list exactly.
• The document title comes from the DWC's document titles list.
• Attachments are the ones described, in the right order, and nothing confidential is attached by mistake.
• Proof of service is complete and matches the parties of record.
• Signatures are in place for every signer the form needs.
• For settlements, the medical reports the judge will need are filed or attached.
• For liens, the fee is paid and the declarations are attached.

After filing:

• Record the date, method and confirmation on the case.
• Check for acceptance or rejection the same day if your method reports it.
• Fix and refile rejections quickly, and recheck any deadline the filing was meant to meet.
• Confirm the hearing or event the filing should create shows up on the public case search, and calendar it.

How a firm can track this

Filing is one step; knowing what happened afterward is another. Firms need the ADJ number, hearing dates and filings recorded on each case, and someone checking EAMS when something should have changed.

PlaintiffStack doesn't e-file with EAMS. It tracks the ADJ number on each workers' comp case, and Case watch keeps a history of the case's EAMS page: someone at the firm looks the case up and pastes the page in, and Case watch records who looked, shows what changed since the last look and offers new hearings to add to the case. The WCAB petition tool drafts petitions with the caption and ADJ number for a person to review and file through your filing method.