10.37a. Best Interests Hearing.

• Court: Kansas

Kansas Workers Compensation Settlement Reporter 10.37a. Best Interests Hearing SummariesChapter 1010.37a Best Interests HearingFebruary 2005. (Settlement) As K.A.R. 51-3-9 provides, a judge shall not enter a settlement award unless there is medical evidence addressing the worker's disability. And when there is a medical report presented, the worker must either read the report or have the report read to him or her. Moreover, the worker must fully understand the medical evidence regarding his or her disability. But the transcript from the July 27, 2004, settlement hearing does not establish whether claimant had read the medical reports introduced at that hearing or whether those reports had been read to her or whether she fully understood the medical evidence concerning her injury. Claimant's attack on the Settlement Award has raised issues that were not addressed at the administrative law judge level. Accordingly, the parties should be afforded the opportunity to compile an evidentiary record to support their legal theories. Consequently, this claim should be remanded to an administrative law judge for further delineating the issues, setting the parties' terminal dates for taking evidence, and decision. Grajeda v. Aramark Uniform Srvs., Docket No. 1,013,096. December 1997. (Award) According to K.S.A. 44-531(a) the administrative law judge...