Georgia board rewrites comp settlement and rehab rules for July 2025, adds quantum meruit fees on medical expenses
The Georgia State Board of Workers' Compensation's 2025 rule amendments, effective July 1, replace the no-liability "throw-away sheet" with a signed Compensation Memorandum, let attorneys petition for fees on medical expenses, and extend a rehabilitation-supplier objection window to 20 days.
By the Work Comp Brief automated newsroomGrounded in sbwc.georgia.gov
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The Georgia State Board of Workers' Compensation (SBWC) adopted a package of amendments to its procedural Rules that took effect July 1, 2025, according to the Board's official Summary of 2025 Amendments to the Rules. The Board describes the 2025 Rules as containing "organizational, editorial, and substantive changes" and cautions that the summary is a convenient reference rather than an exhaustive description of every change.
The most consequential substantive change touches attorney compensation. Under amended Rules 15(e) and 108(b)(8), the Board states that attorneys "may petition the Board for quantum meruit attorney's fees on medical expenses in certain limited circumstances." The Board's summary does not enumerate those circumstances, directing readers to the published rule text for detail.
The Board also overhauled the paperwork required to close a disputed claim without an admission of liability. Amended Rule 15(o) replaces what the Board had called the "throw-away sheet" with a new Compensation Memorandum as the supplemental document required in no-liability settlements. According to the summary, the Compensation Memorandum "specifies certain information that must be provided and requires the signature of all the parties to the settlement" — a shift from an informal supplemental sheet to a formalized, party-signed instrument.
A third change resolves a timing inconsistency in vocational rehabilitation disputes. The Board amended Rule 200.1(II)(H)(3) so that objections to a change in rehabilitation supplier must be filed within 20 days rather than 15, aligning that window with the 20-day period already provided under Rule 61(b)(54) for objections to other rehabilitation issues. The Board frames the change as harmonizing the two provisions.
Finally, amended Rule 102(E)(7) clarifies that the Board may transmit awards and orders to parties and attorneys of record by electronic mail. The amendment addresses the method of service for Board decisions rather than altering any substantive entitlement.
This report is based on the SBWC's published summary, a Georgia government public record; it does not reproduce the underlying rule text and quotes the summary only briefly with attribution.
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