As the esteemed jurist and upholder of compulsory sterilization laws, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, is once reputed to have chided a lawyer, “this is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice.”
The Workers’ Compensation Act provides ample illustrations of this principle. Among them relevant here would be the lack of any requirement that the claimant be notified of the existence of the 90 day provision, its significance for benefits, or means of dispute as a predicate to trigger the operation of the 90 day finality provision.
As the agency notes in its discussion upon adoption: “there is no requirement under the Act that the injured employee be advised of the potential that a first MMI/IR certification will become final if not disputed” (29 TexReg 2331 March 5, 2004).
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