Opinion ID: 6536841
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: We Decline To Dismiss Tobar's Appeal.

Text: Tobar argues on appeal that the Board failed to give her the assistance to which she was entitled as a self-represented litigant, primarily by failing to notify her that she could request a second independent medical evaluation (SIME) to help her fill or explain the gaps in the medical records. Remington argues that Tobar's appeal should be dismissed because she waived all issues, though it acknowledges our policy against finding unintended waiver of claims in technically defective pleadings filed by pro se litigants. 9 Remington contends that Tobar failed to raise below the issues discussed in her brief and that the issues she does discuss are not set out in her statement of points on appeal. We decline to dismiss Tobar's appeal. We may consider new arguments or points of error that were neither raised before the trial court nor included in the points on appeal when the issue presented is '1) not dependent on any new or controverted facts; 2) [is] closely related to the appellant's trial court arguments; and 3) could have been gleaned from the pleadings, or if failure to address the issue would propagate plain error.'  10 We have also concluded that pleadings of self-represented litigants should be held to a less stringent standard and that their briefs are to be read generously. 11 The Commission itself uses this rule. 12 Tobar, as a self-represented litigant, argued to the Commission that the Board had not fully considered Wilson's opinions. We conclude that this argument is sufficiently related to the focus of her appeal - the Board's failure to advise her about an SIME - that her SIME argument is preserved for our review. The Board is authorized under AS 23.30.095(k) to order an SIME [i]n the event of a medical dispute regarding determinations of causation, medical stability, ... the amount and efficacy of the continuance of or necessity of treatment, or compensability between the employee's attending physician and the employer's independent medical evaluation. 13 The date of medical stability was contested in Tobar's case, and Wilson's opinions from 2013 differed from Dr. Youngblood's on the issue. The Board decided that Tobar had become medically stable in March  2014, making Wilson's disagreement with Dr. Youngblood and her continuing treatment of Tobar in 2014 highly relevant. Concluding that the Board's slighting of Wilson's opinions and the advisability of an SIME are closely related issues for purposes of issue preservation, and finding plain errors in important factual findings in the Board's decision - affirmed by the Commission - we also conclude that it would propagate plain error if we failed to consider Tobar's appeal in this case.