OAR 438-006-0081: Postponement of Hearings

(1) A scheduled hearing shall not be postponed except by order of an Administrative Law Judge upon a finding of extraordinary circumstances beyond the control of the party or parties requesting the postponement. "Extraordinary circumstances" shall not include: (a) Failure of the insurer or self-insured employer to refer, or delay in referring, the case or any pertinent information to its representative; (b) Unavailability of a party, lay witness or representative due to nonemergency occupational, personal or professional business or appointments, or unwillingness to appear, provided that a postponement may be granted if the unavailable person is a worker who is temporarily working out of state and is reasonably expected to return to the state within a time certain or is a person who has been duly subpoenaed and has failed to comply with the subpoena; (c) An attorney's, party's, representative's or witness' conflict with proceedings before another administrative body that are scheduled more than three days after mailing of the Hearings Division’s notice of hearing; (d) Incomplete case preparation, unless the Administrative Law Judge finds that completion of the record could not be accomplished with due diligence. (2) For purposes of this rule, "due diligence" shall include, but not be limited to, a party’s inability to produce, because of unavailability, a medical or vocational expert witness for direct examination at hearing or for cross-examination at hearing or by deposition/interrogatories prior to a scheduled hearing, provided that the request for cross-examination was made no later than seven (7) days after the requesting party received from another party a copy of a report from the medical or vocational expert witness accompanied by written notice that the sending party is submitting the report as a proposed exhibit for admission into evidence at a scheduled hearing. A party need not subpoena a medical or vocational expert witness to establish due diligence under this section.