EMPLOYEES' COMPENSATION APPEALS BOARD The Employees' Compensation Appeals Board has exclusive jurisdiction to hear and decide appeals filed by Federal employees from final decisions of the Bureau of Employees' Compensation under the Federal Employees' Compensation Act for injury or disease arising out of and in the course of employment. The Board commenced the 1960 fiscal year with 135 pending cases. During the year, 368 new appeals were filed, as compared with 275 appeals in the previous fiscal year, a 34 percent additional workload. Despite the substantial increase, the Board was able to avoid the accumulation of a backlog. The Board disposed of 371 of the total 503 pending cases and thus ended the fiscal period with 132 pending cases. Of these 132 cases, only 59 were in posture for Board adjudication. However, of the 59 cases, 38 had been "decided" by the Board in executive session and were in the process of or awaiting preparation of the formal decision with opinion. The remaining 73 cases were in some preliminary stage of processing of the appeal in accordance with the rules and regulations governing appeals. The large volume of cases closed by the Board resulted in reducing to 5.2 months the average time lapse from the date of filing an appeal to the date of closing; this compares with 7.2 months last year. The expediting of appeals to a fair and just conclusion, without any sacrifice in the high standards of judicial review which the Board seeks to maintain, and the achievement of a current operating status are the measures of the Board's accomplishments. The Board has reduced the number of pending appeals to its lowest figure since 1950: |