New York State Workers Compensation Board

07/23/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/23/2026 09:57

07/23/2026 - Virtual Hearings: Elimination of five-minute wait time before hearing announcement - distributed via GovDelivery email

In alignment with the efficiency efforts of the NYS Workers' Compensation Board, effective immediately, the automatic five-minute wait time for anticipated parties of interest (POIs) to sign in before a virtual hearing has been eliminated. This will provide greater time savings for all, along with real-time assistance for technical issues and language interpretation needs.

This newly adopted policy still requires Workers' Compensation Law Judges (WCLJs) to wait for all POIs to sign in before starting a hearing. As such, we encourage all parties to sign in promptly and ensure your availability during scheduled hearing times.

  • If their calendars allow, WCLJs are encouraged to wait up to 15 minutes for all POIs to sign in and display as "available" for the hearing.
  • If a 15-minute delay is not possible, WCLJs will allow a five-minute grace period until all POIs have signed in and are marked "available" in the system.
  • Note: A WCLJ is permitted to initiate the start of the hearing in the first five minutes to troubleshoot technical or other non-substantive issues.

Visit the Virtual Hearings section of the Board's website for more information, including step-by-step instruction for attending a hearing:

New York State Workers Compensation Board published this content on July 23, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on July 23, 2026 at 15:57 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]