Comment from Jeffrey Young, Law Office of Jeffrey A. Young

October 7, 2010 Shelby Hallmark, Director Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs U. S. Department of Labor Room S-3524 200 Constitution Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20210 Dear Mr. Hallmark: This letter is a public comment on proposed regulation changes, RIN 1240-AA03. Please note my vigorous and strenuous objection, both on my behalf and on behalf of my past, present and future clients to the proposed ban on contingent fees embodied in 20 CFR §10.702 and the elimination of contingent fees from the “deemed approved” process of §10.703. Such proposals are blatantly anti-employee, anti-consumer and work to the detriment of all injured federal employees. The comments in the Federal Register do not give one substantive reason in support of these changes, but only says that it is a codification of existing policy. THAT IS NOT TRUE!! The statute and the regulations have NEVER banned contingent fee agreements between claimant and representative, only that a contingent fee agreement would not be recognized in the fee approval process. This is a misleading and deceptive attempt by the Department of Labor to impose regulations that have not one stated benefit for injured federal employees. The DOL has lost its mission in the FECA process to be an impartial adjudicator in this misguided effort to deny victims of injury the ability to have knowledgeable and skilled representation at a time in their lives when it is most needed. I am against the proposed changes in §§10.702 and 10.703 that ban contingent fees and don’t allow for automatic approval of ANY fee with a representative where both the representative and the client agree on the fee. Before these changes are made, please hold open, public hearings with notice to all so that the full scope and impact of these changes can be scrutinized in an open, fair, candid and transparent process. Thank you.