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Judge orders Genesee County workers' compensation claims heard locally, not in Dimondale

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Jeremy Allen | jallen42 at mlive.com

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Jeremy Allen | jallen42 at mlive.com

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on November 20, 2012 at 4:45 PM, updated November 20, 2012 at 4:46 PM

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FLINT, MI – Two weeks after

stopping a local man’s workers’ compensation case from being transferred

out of the area, Genesee County Circuit Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut ordered the state not to move subsequent Genesee County workers’ compensation hearings

to the town of Dimondale in southwest Michigan.

workers-comp1.jpg FILE | MLive.com

 

On Nov. 5, Robert MacDonald, attorney of plaintiff Lawrence Younkin, was successful in his lawsuit against the Michigan Administrative Hearing System and

its director, Mike Zimmer, for plans to close the Flint Workers’ Compensation Agency and have Genesee County cases heard in Dimondale.

 

The judge ordered Younkin’s case to be heard locally. However, the ruling applied only to Younkin’s case, not all workers’ compensation cases in Genesee

County.

 

On Monday, Nov. 19, Neithercut ordered state officials to hold all workers’ compensation hearings in the locality where the injury occurred,  as required

under Michigan law.

 

“This court is not in the business of directing parties to ignore the laws of this state. This court will not direct defendants to ignore the laws of the

State of Michigan as to other applicants,” Neithercut said in his written opinion.

 

“Therefore, defendants shall rescind the directive that cases arising out of Genesee County be transferred to a hearing site in Dimondale.”

 

MacDonald said that the judge’s ruling was accurate because the burden of driving nearly 70 miles from the site of an accident to hear a case should not

be on an injured worker.

 

“The Legislature made this the law because it is simply not fair to require injured workers or local businesses to drive across the state for numerous hearings

in order to pursue or defend against these claims,” he said in an email to MLive-Flint Journal.

 

Calls to Zimmer's office were not returned and the Michigan Attorney General's office said the lawyer representing Zimmer -- Thomas Warren -- would not

comment on the case.