AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 50, Chapter 6, Part 2, relative to workers' compensation.
HB0128 makes a broad set of changes to Tennessee’s workers’ compensation system. It revises notice requirements for injured employees, including specific rules for gradual or cumulative injuries, and clarifies when notice must be given to preserve compensation rights. The bill also updates several administrative and procedural provisions governing the workers’ compensation appeals board, workers’ compensation judges, the chief judge, and case handling before the court of workers’ compensation claims.
The bill extends or revises multiple deadlines and eligibility rules in the workers’ compensation chapter. It changes age and experience requirements for certain judicial appointments, lengthens or adjusts term limits and reappointment rules, and authorizes workers’ compensation judges to impose limited contempt sanctions and fines with a process for review and appeal. It also expands recoverable death-related expenses to include burial, cremation, or other lawful disposition costs, and extends a temporary statutory date from June 30, 2025 to June 30, 2030 in one provision while deleting another sunset-related subdivision entirely.
HB0128 amends Tennessee Code Annotated Title 50, Chapter 6, Part 2, affecting workers, employers, insurers, attorneys, and the workers’ compensation adjudicatory system. It changes statutory notice obligations, judicial qualifications, term lengths, and procedural authority within the workers’ compensation courts and appeals board, while also expanding certain compensable expenses in death claims. The act takes effect July 1, 2025, and will alter how claims are filed, managed, and sanctioned under Tennessee’s workers’ compensation laws.
The bill appears to have received generally favorable support in the legislature. It advanced through subcommittee and committee with strong majorities and passed the House and Senate floor votes by comfortable margins, suggesting broad agreement on the need to update and streamline workers’ compensation procedures. The voting history indicates overall support rather than sharp partisan division.
The main points of potential contention are procedural and administrative rather than ideological. Changes to notice deadlines, the ability of judges to impose contempt sanctions, and expanded authority for the presiding judge and appeals board could draw concern from employers, insurers, or claimant advocates depending on how they affect litigation leverage and due process. Adjustments to term limits, age, and experience requirements for judges may also have been debated as to whether they improve professionalism and continuity or unnecessarily narrow eligibility.