A. Unless the parties agree otherwise, or it is ordered by the workers' compensation judge or the director in the case of a director's hearing, hearings shall be held at an office of the workers' compensation administration that is located nearest to the location of injury or disablement. In determining the site of hearing, the judge or the director shall consider cost-effectiveness, judicial efficiency, the health and mobility of the worker and the convenience of parties and witnesses. Hearings may be conducted by videoconferencing or by telephone at the discretion of the judge or the director.

B. The workers' compensation judge and the director shall have the power to preserve and enforce order during hearings; administer oaths; issue subpoenas to compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses, the production of books, papers, documents and other evidence or the taking of depositions before a designated individual competent to administer oaths; examine witnesses; enter noncriminal sanctions for misconduct; and do all things conformable to law that may be necessary to enable the judge or the director to discharge the duties of the judge's or the director's office effectively.

C. In addition to the noncriminal sanctions that may be ordered by the workers' compensation judge or the director, any person committing any of the following acts in a proceeding before a workers' compensation judge or the director may be held accountable for the person's conduct in accordance with the provisions of Subsection D of this section:

(1) disobedience of or resistance to any lawful order or process;

(2) misbehavior during a hearing or so near the place of the hearing as to obstruct it;

(3) failure to produce any pertinent book, paper or document after having been ordered to do so;

(4) refusal to appear after having been subpoenaed;

(5) refusal to take the oath or affirmation as a witness; or

(6) refusal to be examined according to law.

D. The director may certify to the district court of the district in which the acts were committed the facts constituting any of the acts specified in Paragraphs (1) through (6) of Subsection C of this section. The court shall hold a hearing and, if the evidence so warrants, may punish the offending person in the same manner and to the same extent as for contempt committed before the court, or it may commit the person upon the same conditions as if the doing of the forbidden act had occurred with reference to the process of or in the presence of the court.

History: Laws 1986, ch. 22, § 32; 1987, ch. 235, § 48; 1989, ch. 263, § 75; 2001, ch. 87, § 4; 2013, ch. 134, § 8.

The 2013 amendment, effective July 1, 2013, removed the requirement that workers' compensation claims be heard in the county in which the injury occurred; deleted former Subsection A, which required that workers' compensation claims be heard in the county in which the injury occurred; and added Subsection A.

The 2001 amendment, effective July 1, 2001, added the last sentence in Subsection A.

The workers' compensation administration has inherent and statutory authority to suspend an attorney from practicing before it. Chavez v. N.M. Workers' Comp. Admin., 2012-NMCA-060, 280 P.3d 927.

Suspension of an attorney from practicing before the workers' compensation administration. — Where the director of the worker's compensation administration proposed to assess administrative penalties against an attorney who practiced before the workers' compensation administration for seventeen violations of the Worker's Compensation Act and rules; the parties entered into a stipulated agreement which provided that if the attorney violated the terms of the stipulated agreement, a stipulated order which suspended the attorney from practice before the workers' compensation administration would be filed; and the attorney violated the terms of the stipulated agreement and was suspended from practicing before the workers' compensation administration, the workers' compensation administration had authority to suspend the attorney from practicing before it and the suspension did not infringe upon the exclusive authority of the supreme court to discipline attorneys because the workers' compensation administration took no action against the attorney's status as an attorney as such. Chavez v. N.M. Workers' Comp. Admin., 2012-NMCA-060, 280 P.3d 927.

Sanction of an attorney exceeded the workers' compensation administration's authority. — Where a stipulated order suspending an attorney from practicing before the workers' compensation administration prohibited the attorney from generating any fees associated with worker's compensation matters, the prohibition exceeded the worker's compensation administration's authority to control proceedings before it and infringed upon the supreme court's exclusive jurisdiction to discipline attorneys. Chavez v. N.M. Workers' Comp. Admin., 2012-NMCA-060, 280 P.3d 927.

A workers' compensation judge does not have authority to issue injunctions. Leonard v. Payday Prof'l/Bio-Cal Comp., 2008-NMCA-034, 143 N.M. 637, 179 P.3d 1245, cert. denied, 2008-NMCERT-002, 143 N.M. 665, 180 P.3d 674.

Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 82 Am. Jur. 2d Workers' Compensation §§ 523 to 527.

100 C.J.S. Workmen's Compensation § 581 et seq.