In its last board meeting, the Fund trustees unanimously agreed to split the $30,000 contract between the law offices of retired Judge Edward Manibusan and Maya Kara and Bruce Mailman.
Each law office gets a $15,000 contract with the Fund for handling administrative cases.
The board also authorized the Fund’s legal counsel to negotiate the contracts with the administrative hearing officers.
The Fund’s hearing officers handle the agency’s retirement cases and workers compensation cases.
The board also decided to give Manibusan some of the cases previously handled by Kara and Mailman “due to conflict of interest.”
In an interview on Friday, Mailman, who handles the Fund’s cases on workers compensation, said he was the one who recused himself from some Fund cases because of his other role as lawyer in the community.
He said the Fund contracted him and Kara as hearing officers. Kara handles retirement cases, such as allegations of double dipping and retirement claims.
Mailman handles workers compensation cases that involve injured employees, insurance carriers and employers.
Mailman said if there is a conflict of interest, the hearing officer usually recuses himself and the Fund has to find an alternate hearing officer.
