Douglas M. Meagher has built a remarkable career in the area of Indiana workers’ compensation. While much of his career was spent serving the state government, he began a private workers’ compensation practice in 1999. He currently defends insurance carriers, third party administrators and employers. In addition, his experience has qualified him to effectively serve as a mediator resolving workers’ compensation matters.
Douglas has authored numerous articles and made presentations to many different groups and organizations about the Indiana Worker’s Compensation law. He is presently a member of the Board of Directors of the Indiana Worker’s Compensation Institute and is organizing the Master’s Level worker’s compensation seminar for the Indiana Continuing Legal Education Forum in April 2010.
Douglas was appointed Executive Secretary of the Worker’s Compensation Board in July 1989. The Executive Secretary is selected by the Board Chairman with the approval of the Board Members and is responsible for the administrative operations of the state worker’s compensation agency.
While serving as Secretary in 1990, Douglas was appointed Secretary to the Governor’s Task Force on Worker’s Compensation and Occupational Disease Laws Reform. This Task Force organized and prepared extensive reform recommendations to Governor Evan Bayh, many of which were enacted into law in the 1991 session of the Indiana General Assembly. For his service on the Task Force, Douglas was presented the Sagamore of the Wabash Award by Governor Bayh, the highest honor that the State can bestow on a private citizen.
Highlights of the legislation were creation of a special dedicated fee for funding improvements to the Board’s operations, creation of an independent medical examination system whereby employees can contest termination of disability benefits, creation of a new system for calculating permanent partial impairment benefits, allowance for implementation of alternative dispute resolution procedures, assignment of public education and information responsibilities, creation of fines for various systemic requirements, and phased-in adjustments to benefit rates. As Executive Secretary, Douglas was responsible for implementing these changes and new systems.
Douglas created and implemented systems required by the legislative changes; most notably a system for collection of the dedicated fees resulting in collections of approximately $5 million dollars over a four-year period, and the independent medical examination system that is commonly used today. To meet the additional responsibilities assigned to the agency, Douglas created and staffed the Ombudsman Division which is a vital part of the Board’s present operations. He also used the new resources to create new information systems to replace old manual systems for records keeping and claims processing.
In 1994 Douglas was appointed a Member of the Worker’s Compensation Board. The Board Members have various statutory duties but their primary function is to serve as administrative law judges responsible for adjudication of worker’s compensation claims. Board members are appointed by the Governor of Indiana and serve four-year terms. Douglas was appointed while in his first year of law school at the Indiana University School of Law – Indianapolis. He was only the second person appointed to the Board before earning a law degree and the first in over forty years.
While serving as a Board Member, Douglas was responsible for some landmark decisions that are now controlling legal precedent; two examples are that injured workers may not simultaneously collect disability benefits under worker’s compensation and unemployment insurance benefits, and that occupational disease claimants may be awarded payment of on-going medical expenses necessary to treat their disease. Douglas was appointed to a second term in 1997. He left the Board in 1999 to begin a private practice specializing in worker’s compensation defense.
