Workers' Compensation

Recent Posts

California: Court Rules Labor Code Section 3208.3 Burden of Proof Falls on Applicant
Posted on 29 Mar 2012 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

The Second District Court of Appeals has reversed a W.C.A.B. award of psychiatric injury for an employee with less than 6 months employment and in doing so has provided valuable additional guidance on the criterion for meeting the statutory exception... Read More

California: Labor Code Section 3208.3(h) Applied to Migraine Headaches
Posted on 1 Mar 2012 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

The 4th District Court of Appeal has issued a decision on an issue which has been pending in an unresolved fashion since the early 1990s when Labor Code § 3208.3 was amended to provide that injuries arising from lawful good faith personnel actions... Read More

California: Court of Appeals Publishes Valdez Reversal Opinion
Posted on 21 Jun 2012 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

The Second District Court of Appeal has ordered publication of its decision in Valdez v W.C.A.B . which reversed the W.C.A.B. en banc ruling that medical reports obtained by applicants pursuant to Labor Code § 4605 were not admissible. Thus, the... Read More

CWCI Continues Case Law Series With 2012 Update
Posted on 19 Mar 2012 by California Workers' Compensation Institute

The California Workers’ Compensation Institute has announced it will conduct a one-day case law seminar in May in both Long Beach and San Francisco. The program will examine how recent trends in decisional law are reshaping California workers’... Read More

California: W.C.A.B. Provides Guidance on AME/QME Request Process Timing Issues
Posted on 27 Sep 2011 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

If there was ever a question the medical legal process in workers’ compensation has become concerned with tactical minutia rather than dealing with substantive issues in the day to day comp practice, the W.C.A.B.’s en banc opinion in Tsegay... Read More

California: Court Upholds W.C.A.B. Ruling Excluding Medical Legal TD From Labor Code § 4656 Window
Posted on 27 Jun 2012 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

The 3rd Appellate District has resolved a one of the issues that has been frequently discussed but almost never raised (at least in my experience) regarding payment of TTD during the period between 4/19/2004 and 12/31/2007 when the first payment of TD... Read More

California: Earnings Includes Employer Provided Living Quarters and Benefit (Labor Code Sec. 4554)
Posted on 14 Sep 2011 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

The Court of Appeals, Third Appellate District, has ordered published a recently issued decision on calculation of Temporary Disability benefits where the employee’s earnings include not only salary but also living quarters including utilities but... Read More

California W.C.A.B. Affirms Prior Valdez Decision
Posted on 29 Sep 2011 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

When it rains it pours... Having just issued an en banc decision yesterday on QME panel issues, the W.C.A.B. has just issued its 3rd Reconsideration decision in Valdez v Warehouse Demo Services . The original decision issued in April 2011 holding... Read More

California: W.C.A.B. Limits Application of Messele Decision
Posted on 23 Nov 2011 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

After seeking input on its Notice of Intent to limit application of the Messele decision prospectively, and getting none, the W.C.A.B. has confirmed its decision to limit the application of its holding. The W.C.A.B. has, in a decision which issued yesterday... Read More

California: Supreme Court Declines Rehearing in Baker, Modifies Opinion Without Change in Result
Posted on 20 Oct 2011 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

The California Supreme Court has issued its decision denying the Petition for Rehearing filed by applicant in Baker v W.C.A.B. (XYZZX) . The court did make some modifications to its opinion that to some extent addressed the issues raised in applicant... Read More

Herlick Handbook 31st Edition: Educating the California Workers’ Comp Community Since 1964
Posted on 28 Nov 2011 by LexisNexis Workers' Comp Law Newsroom Staff

LexisNexis Announces New Editors-in-Chief: Richard Jacobsmeyer, Julius Young, Barry Bloom This 31st edition marks a transition in the history of Herlick, California Workers’ Compensation Handbook . Longtime author Stanford D. Herlick passed away... Read More

California Court of Appeals Closes Apportionment Loophole
Posted on 2 Dec 2011 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

The Court of Appeal has closed what could have ended up being an enormous loophole in Labor Code § 4663 with a decision reversing a W.C.A.B. opinion on apportionment and then ordering publication after the decision was initially ordered unpublished... Read More

U.S. Dept. of Labor Posts SAWW Information for 2013 COLA Calculations
Posted on 7 Jun 2012 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

[ Editor's Note: This blog post has been corrected .] Unfortunately when I initially looked at the Dept of Labor site for this information, the link for last year’s information took me to the 4th quarter, not the first quarter. This resulted... Read More

California: Utilization Review and IMR in SB 863
Posted on 8 Sep 2012 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

Medical Treatment Changes Some of the most extensive changes to the Labor Code in SB 863 are intended to tighten up medical control in both Labor Code § 4600 as well as in the Medical Provider Networks. One of the principle methodologies for controlling... Read More

California: Ogilvie Reversed – Confusion Reigns
Posted on 30 Jul 2011 by Richard M. Jacobsmeyer

The 1st District Court of Appeal has issued its decision in the combined cases of Ogilvie v W.C.A.B./ City and County of SF v WCAB reversing the W.C.A.B. en banc decision but upholding the concept of a rebuttable schedule. In its decision the Court specifically... Read More