Thursday, May 24, 2012

Commissioner Thompson Passes

Hon. Clifton Thompson who was actively serving the citizens of the State of Connecticut as a Worker's Compensation Commissioner passed away on Friday, May 18th, 2004. At the time of his death, Commissioner Thompson was hearing cases in the Second and Sixth Districts. Commissioner Thompson will be remembered by me as a true gentleman. Although a recent appointee and newcomer to worker's compensation law, Commissioner Thompson dove right in and effectively handled cases in a fair and compassionate manner. I will truly miss him. Our firm's sympathies go out to his wife and family.

Friday, May 4, 2012

SSA Bans Judges from Stalking Facebook

I read today that apparently the Social Security Administration has banned its' Administrative Law Judges from using Facebook in particular and the internet in general to root out Claimant fraud. I have often suspected ALJ's dig around in he online world to discover whether or not the Claimants that appear before them can be found dancing or running or in general having some sort of life when they are not in the hearing room. All in all, I believe the SSA's new policy is the only fair way to handle things. There is all sorts of ways online sites and web pages can be manipulated so that things are not as they appear. Let's keep decisions based on testable evidence duly admitted in the hearing room and not based on someone's Facebook or Twitter page.