North Dakota's workers compensation agency says it will resume using independent hearing officers to review disputes over benefits paid to workers who are injured on the job.

Bruce Furness, director of Workforce Safety and Insurance, said Wednesday the agency will use the state Office of Administrative Hearings to handle the appeals.

Workforce Safety quit using the agency's administrative law judges last November because WSI officials believed they were taking too long to make decisions.

Instead, WSI hired private lawyers to review benefit appeals and offered bonuses to those who finished their work quickly.

Under the new agreement with the Office of Administrative Hearings, judges at the agency have an average of 25 days to issue decisions after a hearing is closed, said Jodi Bjornson, Workforce Safety's top lawyer. Previously, decisions sometimes took more than 40 days to complete.

The agreement will take effect in August, Bjornson said.

An administrative law judge will be paid $120 hourly for work time and $60 hourly for travel, with a fee cap of $2,940, the contract says.

There are no bonuses for finishing a case more quickly and no financial penalties for judges who take longer.

Bjornson said WSI had contracted with eight lawyers to preside at hearings on benefit appeals. Those attorneys will be offered contract positions at the Office of Administrative Hearings to do the same work, said Bjornson and Allen Hoberg, director of the hearings office.