Judge Coulter is a Workers’ Compensation Judge at the Long Beach District Office of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB). She earned a B.S. in Education from the State University College of New York in Buffalo. She then attended Southwestern Law School, graduating in 1982 with a Juris Doctor degree. She opened a law office as a solo practitioner in December of that year concentrating in civil and family law. In1986 she limited her practice to representing injured workers in Workers’ Compensation cases.

Judge Coulter became a Workers’ Compensation Conference Referee on May 25, 1991 and was promoted to the position of Workers’ Compensation Judge in January of 1993. She remains in that position at the Long Beach District Office of the WCAB.

Judge Coulter was the Judicial Training Officer and Chair of the Educational Committee for the State of California, Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Workers’ Compensation from 2001 to 2005. In that position, she was responsible for overseeing the training of all Workers’ Compensation Judges and other Workers’ Compensation professionals in the Division.

She has spoken on a variety of topics related to Workers’ Compensation including, but not limited to, Vocational Rehabilitation, Settlement Techniques, Preparing for Trial, Trial Techniques, Legislative Changes, Case Law Updates and New Rules, educating the Workers’ Compensation community on the current changes in the law as well as providing training and practice pointers for practitioners in the field.

From 2005 to 2007 and again from 2008 and continuing, she served as a Board member of the California Conference of Workers’ Compensation Judges and is now serving as the President of that organization for a fourth term. Commencing in 2006, she served on the Executive Committee of the Workers’ Compensation Section of the State Bar of California. She served as Chair of that Executive Committee from 2011-2012, Immediate Past Chair from 2012-2013 and as an advisor from 2013-2014.

Judge Coulter was appointed to the State Bar’s California Board of Legal Specialization for a four (4) year term commencing October 11, 2015.

Judge Coulter was a member of the Executive Committee of the National Conference of Administrative Law Judiciary, a Conference of the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association, from 2002 to 2007. She has been a Council Member of the Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division (GPSLD) of the American Bar Association since August of 2008 and is presently Chair-elect of the Division as well as Chair of its ethics committee.

She was Vice-Chair of the Ethics and Professionalism Committee of the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association from August 2008 – August 2009, and has served as Vice-Chair of the Workers’ Compensation Section of the Trial Tort and Insurance Practice Section of the American Bar Association.

Judge Coulter is an alumna of the National Judicial College (NJC) and has earned three Certificates of Judicial Development in the areas of General Jurisdiction Trial Skills, Dispute Resolution Skills and Administrative Law Adjudication Skills. She joined the teaching faculty of NJC in 2001 and has taught in both the Workers’ Compensation and Administrative Law-Fair Hearing classes.

Judge Coulter is a member of the State Bar of California, the Orange County Bar Association and The American Bar Association. She also is involved with various entities of the American Bar Association including The National Conference of Administrative Law Judiciary, The National Association of Administrative Law Judges, and The Center for Professional Responsibility.