IWCC Arbitrator Reassignment Follow-up

The IWCC posted a follow-up to its arbitrator reassignments. For all questions regarding arbitrators or arbitration, the IWCC’s contact is Bertha Parker. 

Currently, there are three types of arbitrator reassignments:

• Immediate reassignments
• One of HB 1698's initial changes was the termination of the IWCC arbitrators on July 1, 2011; however, they continued to serve pending either reappointment or replacement.
• When Governor Quinn announced his arbitrator appointments in October, John Dibble, Gilberto Galicia, James Giordano, Kathleen Hagan, Robert Lammie, Andrew Nalefski, Richard Peterson and Joseph Prieto were not reappointed, and Charles DeVriendt was instead appointed to the Commission.
• In addition to the initial changes, 2 reappointed arbitrators have recently changed positions, with Ruth White's appointment to the Commission and Jeffrey Tobin's appointment to the Seventh Judicial Circuit.
• The immediate reassignments and call coverage are due to the former arbitrators who were not reappointed.  The IWCC distributed the cases that were tried, but not yet decided, to the current arbitrators to render decisions.
• Temporary assignments
• Arbitrators Jutila (Chicago) and Neal (Collinsville) are out on medical leave, so the IWCC is assigning arbitrators to cover these calls.
• January 1, 2012 reassignments
• Effective January 1, 2012, the current 24 arbitrator territories reduce to 17 territories, and a combination of three arbitrators will rotate through each territory.  According to the IWCC's announcement:

For the rest of 2011, the current arbitrator assignments are still in place. These reassignments should not impair parties' ability to move their cases in November and December 2011. There is no need to cancel scheduled trials.