2017 New Mexico Statutes
Chapter 52 - Workers' Compensation
Article 5 - Workers' Compensation Division
Section 52-5-6 - Authority of the director to conduct hearings.

52-5-6. Authority of the director to conduct hearings.

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.