North Carolina attorneys gained secure online access Monday to workers’ compensation case files through a new state portal, a change intended to reduce separate copy requests and give law firms direct access to case information and documents.
The North Carolina Industrial Commission said its new service, called the Attorney File Access Service, opened Sept. 21. The system allows each law firm to designate one or more access managers who control which staff members may view files associated with the firm’s attorneys.
The rollout is a procedural modernization rather than a change to workers’ compensation benefits or filing deadlines. The commission administers claims under the state’s compensation law, which covers most public employment and private workplaces with at least three employees, subject to statutory exceptions. Its files can include forms, orders, medical motions and other records generated as claims move through the system.
Access is not automatic for every employee at a participating firm. The commission said an attorney must create and maintain an account through its Online Services Center before a firm’s access manager can grant staff permission to that attorney’s files. Firms that had not yet named an access manager were instructed to submit the manager’s contact information to the commission.
The commission began preparing firms for the change before launch. In an Aug. 31 implementation notice, it told firms to select access managers, confirm that those managers had active portal accounts and file an electronic identification form. The Clerk’s Office was then to work with each manager and provide training materials.
For attorneys, the immediate benefit is centralized access to documents that otherwise required a request for a copy of a commission file. The permission structure also places responsibility on firms to keep staff access aligned with who is authorized to work on each attorney’s cases. The commission has not described the portal as public access; its announcement specifically limits the service to attorneys and designated staff.
The system enters service in a high-volume area of state law with strict procedural requirements. The commission’s filing guidance says an injured employee generally initiates a claim using Form 18 and ordinarily faces a two-year filing limit. Employees also must generally give an employer written notice of a workplace accident within 30 days. Those requirements remain unchanged by the portal launch.
The distinction matters for injured workers: an employer’s Form 19 report does not itself create the employee’s claim, according to the same guidance. Claimants remain responsible for filing the appropriate form on time, while the new service is designed for legal representatives handling existing commission matters.
Law firms still outside the system can establish accounts and identify access managers through the commission’s online services. The agency’s launch notice indicates that ongoing access depends on both the firm-level manager designation and the individual attorney’s maintained portal account.
