1. (a) The presence of a party or witness to a hearing may appear, or the entire hearing may be held, remotely via telephonic or video conference call with approval from the labor commissioner, the labor commissioner’s designee, or board as applicable. Approval shall be given when all parties consent to remote hearing, provided that adequate equipment and facilities are available to allow all parties to the remote hearing to participate fully.

2. (b) If all parties do not agree to the presence of a party or the examination of a witness by telephone or video conference call, the labor commissioner, the labor commissioner’s designee ,or board as applicable shall allow the presence of a party or the ability of a witness to testify by telephone or video network conference upon a finding that:

   1. (1) Adequate equipment and facilities are available to allow all parties to participate fully in the examination; and

   2. (2) Allowing testimony in this form is necessary due to one or more of the following:

      1. a. Economic hardship;
      2. b. Illness;
      3. c. Distance to travel to the hearing from outside of New Hampshire;
      4. d. Incarceration;
      5. e. The safety of any party to the proceedings is at risk based upon reasonable knowledge of threats or acts of violence; or contagious disease; or
      6. f. It would be manifestly inequitable to deny the requesting party use of telephonic or video conferencing call to present the testimony.
3. (c) Remote participation of a party or witness to a hearing shall be denied if the labor commissioner, the labor commissioner’s designee, or board as applicable determines that the physical presence of the party or witness is necessary to assess credibility or is otherwise prejudicial.

Source. #8922-A, eff 7-1-07; ss by #14534, eff 3-12-26 (formerly Lab 203.07)