This year has been another active year for the Workers’ Compensation Section. After hosting a festive Christmas party at Remington Park where the band “Banana Seat” played tunes for dancing, the section got off to a great start in 2008 by co-sponsoring the spring OBA CLE in Oklahoma City and Tulsa entitled “Workers’ Compensation: You Can’t Make This Stuff Up.” The seminar was very well attended and was also selected to be a webcast event. Our section seminars always allow our members, as well as non-members and other professionals involved in the workers’ compensation arena, the opportunity to become more informed on a good variety of timely topics that are of particular interest to our field of practice.

In July, the section sponsored its annual Golf Tournament. This year, the event was held for the first time at a public golf course---Clary Fields in Sapulpa. This is a fairly new course which incorporates a lot of Oklahoma’s natural terrain and vegetation. One hole even has a large red barn right in the middle of it! It was a nice change of pace for participants, who retained their competitive edge no matter what course they were playing. The participants were section members as well as section friends from both Tulsa and Oklahoma City. A total of 16 teams participated, and several prizes were handed out including longest drive, closest to the pin and best overall score. A special thanks goes to our Chairperson-Elect, Kevin Berry, for organizing this very successful event.

2008 brought about many judicial changes at the Workers’ Compensation Court, as four judicial positions came up for reappointment in June. Many of the applicants for the positions were new faces; therefore, the section decided to host a reception for the applicants so the members of the bar could meet the applicants face to face. This event took place at Lakeside Grill at Lake Hefner and was very well attended by attorneys, judges, applicants and others involved in the court system. It was a great way to informally meet and greet the new people, as well as getting to know some other section members on a more social level.

After the judicial appointment process was completed, the section also sponsored a reception for the new judges at the Skirvin Hotel. This was the section’s way of welcoming the new judges to the Workers’ Compensation Court and section. Once again, the event was very well attended by section members from Oklahoma City and Tulsa.

As this report is being written, the final touches are being put in place for our Fall OBA seminar entitled “Workers’ Compensation Update: Where Are We Now?” This seminar proves to be yet another informative and entertaining agenda, covering topics such as Indian Law, Chronic Pain Management, the interplay of Workers’ Comp and Medicare, Case Law Update, and much more. Our section members always prove to be an invaluable resource when it comes to agreeing to speak at our seminars, and we are very grateful to all of them for generously serving the section and the bar.

The year will come to a close with the annual meeting in November. The section continues to work hard to maintain good professional and social relationships between attorneys from Oklahoma City and Tulsa, as well as between the Bench and the Bar.

Kristi Bynum Russell
Chairperson