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ISSUES IN BLACK LUNG BENEFITS LAW

Saturday, March 21, 2015At Room 213, J. Marvin Jolly Classroom Building

Hazard Community and Technical College One Community College Drive

Hazard, KY 41701

10:00 Handling Appellate Court Review of Administrative Agency Determinations in the

Electronic Environment

Presenter: The Hon. John M. Rogers, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit

Judge Rogers was appointed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on November 26,2002. Prior to joining the Court of Appeals, Judge Rogers taught administrative law at theUniversity of Kentucky College of Law. Judge Rogers graduated from the University ofMichigan Law School. His undergraduate degree is from Stanford University.

11:00  Lung Disease Caused by Coal Mine Dust Exposure – An Overview and RecentDevelopments

Presenter: Lee Petsonk, M.D.

Dr. Petsonk is a pulmonary specialist and a Professor of Medicine at the West VirginiaUniversity School of Medicine. His U.S. Public Health Service career included 20 years ofscientific and administrative leadership and mentoring of trainees as Chief, Clinical Section (10years), and Team Leader, Workforce Screening and Surveillance Team (10 years) at the NationalInstitute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). Dr. Pestonk graduated from CornellUniversity and McGill University Faculty of Medicine. He has special expertise in the B reader

certification program and he is an expert in occupational respiratory disease. Dr. Petsonk  

is theauthor of numerous articles in medical journals regarding respiratory and pulmonary disease.

12:00 to 12:30 Lunch (provided)

12:30 Developments at the Division of Coal Mine Workers’ Compensation Programs

Presenter: Roger Belcher

Mr. Belcher became the District Director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s black lungoffice in Pikeville, KY, in August 2008. He has extensive experience with the black lung benefits program, first at the Social Security Administration and later at the U.S. Department ofLabor, which he joined as a claims examiner in 1978. He became a supervisor in 1991. Mr.Belcher attended the University of Pennsylvania.

1:30 Where is the Line? Attorney Work Product and Fox v. Elk Run Coal Company

Presenter: John Cline, Esq.

Mr. Cline is a sole practitioner in Piney View, WV. He specializes in the representationof disabled miners and widows on claims for benefits under the federal black lung benefits

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 program. Mr. Cline’s clients were featured in a series of articles published by the Center forPublic Integrity and featured on the ABC Nightline program. Mr. Cline graduated from theSchool of Law at West Virginia University.

Application for approval of this activity for a maximum of 4.00 credits, including 1.00

ethics credits, is PENDING before the Kentucky Bar Association Continuing LegalEducation Commission.

To register for Issues in Black Lung Benefits Law, complete the following information and sendto the address at the bottom of this form.

 ___________________________________________ Name

 ___________________________________________

Address

 ___________________________________________Telephone number

 ___________________________________________Email

Registration fee is $50.00. This fee covers lunch. The deadline to register is March 6, 2015.Amount Enclosed $_______Please check if you are vegetarian. ______

Make checks payable to: Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center

You may fax, mail or email this registration form(s) to theAppalachian Citizens’ Law Center317 Main StreetWhitesburg, KY 41858606-633-3929606-633-3925 FAXSteve@appalachianlawcenter.org859-245-0949 (cell)

The Hazard Community and Technical College campus is located on Route 15 south of Hazard,

KY. The J. Marvin Jolly Classroom Building is on the right after you enter the campus.