By Judge Brian Addington
Tennessee Bureau of Workers’ Compensation
Nashville, TN

 

Years ago, I was watching 60 Minutes, and Anderson Cooper reported on what some people considered was the smartest dog in the world.  Chaser, a female border collie, could not only recognize words but groups of words and act accordingly.

John Pilley, a retired psychology professor, had taken an interest in border collie trials after his retirement.  He was joking around with dog trainers one day and told them their dogs were not that smart because they could not even know their names or nouns.  The trainers spoke up and told him he was wrong because the dog not only knew its name but the names of specific sheep on the farms and could pick out a specific sheep from a herd.

That sparked an interest in Mr. Pilley to further research the idea, so he adopted Chaser.  He first taught Chaser what a blue ball was.  After one month, she could recognize 40 nouns.  Pretty soon she was able to recognize adjectives like faster and slower, larger and smaller.  Eventually, she was able to learn over 1,000 nouns during her lifetime.  But it took training, effort and the encouragement from Dr. Pilley to grow that vocabulary, and a dog interested in learning.

The same sort of thinking applies to Workers’ Compensation judges.  All of us were new at some point and willing to learn.  We did have a background of education and experience but no experience with the day-to-day of being a judge.  Most of us were advocates, not neutrals, and it took some time and effort to learn the “judge’s way” of handling things.

In Tennessee, when a new judge is hired, the newbie is assigned a mentor to help with onboarding of day-to-day operations and instructions in the law, and the ability to account for the work they do.  They are also assigned another judge to specifically help them edit their common everyday orders, and all the judges assist them in editing evidentiary hearing orders.  These instructions help the new judge learn the system, but it also enables the new judge to provide fresh insight to the judges who have been here a while.

The new judges are also sent to the NAWCJ boot camp, which helps them understand their new role, network with other new judges, and receive mentoring from well learned judges and professors.  Tennessee judges then are placed in rotation to attend the NAWCJ conference to further educate them and give them an opportunity to engage in thoughtful discussions and training with other judges.

I have found the NAWCJ very helpful.  I have reached out to judges from other states occasionally for help with understanding their system and laws to see if Tennessee could adopt similar helpful rules.  What I have experienced is that all the judges are more than willing to help our profession progress.

Tennessee judges are also required to attend in-house judicial conferences twice a year dealing with judicial writing, evidence, and ethics.  At each meeting, we also discuss best in-house practices and the ways of dealing with our customers.  In other words, the idea is how are we doing, and how can we improve?  We are asked after every meeting, what did you learn?  Sometimes the answer is we need to start thinking differently about issues and keep an open mind to changes.

So, when it comes to the best dog in the world, Chaser obviously could take the title, but so could Lasse – she saved so many people!

But when it comes to who is the best workers’ compensation judge in the world, I won’t name names, but obviously the person is a member of the NAWCJ, actively participates in it and other education conferences, helps other judges when they can, and is always, always open to learning.