§ 10205.12. Form and Size Requirements for Filed Documents.

(a) All documents except the medical reports of treating physicians, secondary physicians, qualified or agreed medical evaluators and proposed exhibits, shall be filed in accordance with the following standards:

(1) Only one side of each paper shall be used;

(2) All documents shall be printed with black ink on white paper that is 8 1/2 x 11 inches and at least twelve pound weight. All margins shall be at least 1 inch and shall be without typed or handwritten text in any margin;

(3) The first page shall include a case caption that shall include the name of the injured worker or dependent claiming benefits, the name of the employer and the employer's insurer or indicating the employer is self-insured and a case number if one has been assigned by the district office. If a case number has been assigned the number shall be preceded by the abbreviation “ADJ”;

(4) All non-form legal pleadings shall contain a heading above the case caption containing the name of the filing attorney and their state bar membership number and the attorney's law firm name and address;

(5) Except as otherwise provided in this section or section 10205.10, all OCR forms and documents shall be printed in Times New Roman, Times, Courier, Palatino, Century Schoolbook or similar serif font of at least 12 points in size;

(6) Except as otherwise provided in section 10205.10, all text added to the OCR forms shall be in capital letters.

(7) Response to the request on the OCR forms for social security numbers is optional, not mandatory.

(8) A list of body part codes is provided with the document cover sheet form and posted on the Division of Workers' Compensation website (http://www.dir.ca.gov/forms.html). The codes shall be used on OCR forms to describe the part of the body injured.

(9) A list of district office codes for place of venue is provided with the document cover sheet form and posted on the Division of Workers' Compensation website (http://www.dir.ca.gov/forms.html). The codes shall be used on OCR forms to describe the district office venue.

(10) No single document shall exceed 25 pages in length without the prior permission of the appeals board or the presiding workers' compensation administrative law judge of the district office with venue over the case;

(11) The text of a document shall be double spaced or one and one half spaces; however, captions, headings, headers, footnotes, footers and block quotations shall be single spaced.

(12) The documents shall be flat, without folds and without staples.

(13) OCR forms have bar codes at the top of the document. No other documents shall have bar codes on the top of the document.

(b) All documents shall be filed with document cover sheets and document separator sheets as follows:

(1) A completed document cover sheet shall be the first page of each individual document or set of documents filed at one time in the same case. The cover sheet provides space for information regarding 15 companion cases. Only the pages filled out need to be filed. A document separator sheet shall precede each document within a set of documents.

(2) If an individual document includes an attachment, a completed document separator sheet shall precede the attachment and if an individual document includes multiple attachments, a document separator sheet shall precede each individual attachment. A document separator sheet shall not be placed between a document and the proof of service for that document. Where one proof of service is used for multiple documents, a document separator sheet shall precede the proof of service.

(3) A list of document titles is provided with the document separator sheet form and posted on the Division of Workers' Compensation website (http://www.dir.ca.gov/forms.html). The document titles shall be used on document separator sheet to describe the attached document.

(4) The document separator sheet requires the filer to list the product delivery units, as defined in section 10205(dd), the date of the attached document, and the author of the attached document.

(5) This subdivision shall not apply to any unrepresented employees, unrepresented dependents or unrepresented uninsured employers who do not have ready access to document cover sheets and document separator sheets.

(c) Oversized documents shall be filed only at the time of trial in accordance with the provisions of section 10603.

(d) If an unrepresented worker, an unrepresented uninsured employer, or an unrepresented dependent does not have ready access to a computer or typewriter and compliance with subdivisions (a)(3) and (a)(5) is not feasible, a hand-printed document may be submitted. Any hand-printed document shall be legible and shall otherwise comply with subdivision (a), including the requirements of subdivision (a)(3) regarding margins and text in the margins.

HISTORY

1. Renumbering of former section 10232 to new section 10205.12, including amendment of subsections (a)(5)-(6) and (b)(4) and amendment of Note, filed 12-10-2012 as a change without regulatory effect pursuant to section 100, title 1, California Code of Regulations by the Division of Workers' Compensation and as a file and print by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board pursuant to Government Code section 11351 (Register 2012, No. 50).

2. Amendment of subsection (b)(4) filed 12-31-2012 as an emergency; operative 1-1-2013 pursuant to Government Code section 11346.1(d) (Register 2013, No. 1). A Certificate of Compliance must be transmitted to OAL by 7-1-2013 or emergency language will be repealed by operation of law on the following day.

3. Amendment of subsection (b)(4) refiled 6-26-2013 as an emergency; operative 7-1-2013 pursuant to Government Code section 11346.1(d) (Register 2013, No. 26). A Certificate of Compliance must be transmitted to OAL by 9-30-2013 or emergency language will be repealed by operation of law on the following day.

4. Amendment of subsection (b)(4) refiled 9-30-2013 as an emergency; operative 10-1-2013 pursuant to Government Code section 11346.1(d) (Register 2013, No. 40). A Certificate of Compliance must be transmitted to OAL by 12-30-2013 or emergency language will be repealed by operation of law on the following day.

5. Certificate of Compliance as to 9-30-2013 order transmitted to OAL 11-8-2013 and filed 12-16-2013 (Register 2013, No. 51).

Note

Note: Authority cited: Sections 111, 133 and 5307.3, Labor Code; and Stats. 2011, c. 559, §17 (A.B. 1426). Reference: Section 126, Labor Code.