Fine Appointed as Ark. Workers’ Comp Commission Judge

O. Milton Fine II, a longtime attorney on Gov. Mike Huckabee’s staff, is the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission’s newest Administrative Law Judge, the AWCC reported.

The AWCC is administrator of the state’s workers’ compensation laws and resolves issues for stakeholders in the workers’ compensation community.

ALJs hold hearings to adjudicate between parties and then write opinions to settle disputes regarding the state workers’ compensation laws, rules, and other related matters.

Fine was educated at the University of Tulsa in Oklahoma and received his law degree from the Vanderbilt University School of Law in Nashville, Tenn.

He was an associate at the law firm of Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard in Little Rock from 1990 to 1992.

He then went to work for the state, first with the Attorney General Office from 1992-2002, then with the Governor’s Office in 2002.

He was assistant attorney general in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit and, later, in the Criminal Department.

In the fraud unit, Fine was hired to begin the first of its kind program in the nation to bring civil actions against providers for Medicaid fraud. In 1994, the unit was sixth among its peers in monetary recoveries, totaling more than $1.8 million.

In the criminal department, he was in charge of substantial federal and state litigation and argued numerous cases before the state’s Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.

For the governor, he was assistant legal counsel, serving as policy advisor to state agencies, boards, commissions, and departments. He also handled all Freedom of Information Act requests.

He became Governor Huckabee’s chief legal counsel in January, 2004, and was liaison to many state offices. He drafted executive orders, policy directives, and proclamations.

ALJ Fine presides over workers’ compensation hearings in District 3 (Baxter, Boone, Cleburne, Conway, Faulkner, Fulton, Independence, Izard, Marion, Pope, Searcy, Stone, Van Buren, and White counties). He shares the ALJ duties in District 3 with Judge Frank Arey.

Source: AWCC