January 02, 2024

California: Top 25 Noteworthy Panel Decisions (July through December 2023)

LexisNexis has selected some of the top “noteworthy” panel decisions issued by the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board during the period July through December 2023. The second part of this year yielded several cases addressing instances of workplace violence, including one case involving a third-party attack and another an assault by a co-worker. In the latter case, the WCAB applied the two...

December 08, 2023

California: How Should Labor Code Section 3301(b) Be Interpreted? Velasquez Puts That Question in the Spotlight

By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board The existence of an employment relationship is the lynchpin of workers’ compensation programs. California’s workers’ compensation act, which must be liberally construed to protect injured workers, presumes that persons rendering services for another are employees ( Lab...

December 06, 2023

A Look at Our Changing Workforce and the Consequences for Workers’ Compensation

By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board For readers who may not be familiar with the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute (WCRI), it is renowned as a preeminent independent research organization dedicated to helping guide policymakers and others interested in improving workers’ compensation systems by providing...

November 28, 2023

CWCI Notes No Change in California Workers’ Compensation Weekly TD Rates for 2024

The U.S. Department of Labor has issued new data showing California's State Average Weekly Wage (SAWW) edged down 0.48 percent from $1,650 to $1,642 in the 12 months ending March 31, 2023. As a result, the California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) notes there will be no change in California’s minimum and maximum temporary total disability (TTD) and permanent total disability (PTD) rates for 2024...

November 28, 2023

California Compensation Cases November 2023

CALIFORNIA COMPENSATION CASES Vol. 88, No. 11 November 2023 A Report of En Banc and Significant Panel Decisions of the WCAB and Selected Court Opinions of Related Interest, With a Digest of WCAB Decisions Denied Judicial Review CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE LexisNexis Online Subscribers: You can link to your account on Lexis+ to read the complete headnotes and court decisions, en banc decisions, writ denied summaries...

November 28, 2023

California: Labor Code Section 4663(c) Revisited: When Is a Physician’s Apportionment Determination Substantial Evidence?

By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board Nearly two decades ago Senate Bill 899 was enacted and ushered in a new apportionment scheme making the employer liable only for the percentage of permanent disability directly caused by the industrial injury ( Lab. Code § 4664 (a)). To effectuate that statutory mandate, the physician...

November 08, 2023

California: Noteworthy Independent Medical Review (IMR) Decisions (11/2023)

LexisNexis has selected some recently issued noteworthy IMR decisions that illustrate the criteria that must be met to obtain authorization for a variety of different medical treatment modalities. LexisNexis Commentary for each selected IMR is provided below. Many of these IMR decisions were reprinted in California Compensation Cases , which can be accessed on Lexis Advance. Lexis Advance subscribers can access those...

November 02, 2023

COVID-19 Among Nursing Care Facility Workers: Occupational Injuries and Illnesses

By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board Early in the COVID-19 pandemic we learned that nursing care facilities ( i.e., nursing homes, skilled nursing facilities, assisted living facilities and the like) were especially vulnerable to the disease. Based on our current knowledge of COVID-19, the susceptibility of employees in such...

October 25, 2023

California: Home Health Assessment

Home Health Assessment: When Can a Defendant Use Labor Code Section 4050 to Compel an Evaluation? By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board Labor Code section 4050 requires an industrially injured employee, upon the written request of their employer, to submit at reasonable intervals to a medical examination by a practicing physician...

October 19, 2023

California Workers’ Compensation: Year 2023 in Review

By Julius Young, Richard M. Jacobsmeyer, and Barry D. Bloom, Co-Editors-in-Chief, Herlick, California Workers’ Compensation Handbook This 2024 edition is the 43rd edition of Herlick, California Workers’ Compensation Handbook . The after-effects of the COVID epidemic are still evident in the California system. Since 2020, many workers’ compensation stakeholders have changed their operational models...

October 19, 2023

California Compensation Cases October 2023

CALIFORNIA COMPENSATION CASES Vol. 88, No. 10 October 2023 A Report of En Banc and Significant Panel Decisions of the WCAB and Selected Court Opinions of Related Interest, With a Digest of WCAB Decisions Denied Judicial Review CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE LexisNexis Online Subscribers: You can link to your account on Lexis+ to read the complete headnotes and court decisions, en banc decisions, writ denied summaries...

October 10, 2023

California: Head Contusion’s Effect Makes Pre-Existing Brain Tumor Compensable

By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board Perhaps the title has piqued your curiosity, and you decide to take a second glance. No, you aren’t reading some newsstand tabloid; you are reading LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter. How might a simple head contusion be linked to an anaplastic meningioma so that the...

October 04, 2023

Updated Findings: Long COVID in the Workers’ Compensation System

By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board A January 2023 issue of the Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter discussed the findings of the Workers’ Compensation Research Institute’s (WCRI) study, “ Long COVID in the Workers’ Compensation System Early in the Pandemic” (Bogdan Savych, WC-23-16, January...

September 28, 2023

California: Guardian Ad Litem After Applicant Reaches Age of Majority

Here's an interesting Board panel decision about a long-standing guardian ad litem who continued to represent the applicant after that party reached the age of majority. The WCAB said that the guardian ad litem could continue to represent the applicant as a non-attorney representative as long as proper notice was given. Below is the LexisNexis headnote for the panel decision in Theus v. Melody Express. CA - NOTEWORTHY...

September 25, 2023

CWCI Examines 10-year California Workers’ Comp Payment Trends

Oakland – A new California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) study finds that average paid losses on California workers’ compensation lost-time claims fell immediately after legislative reforms (SB 863) took effect a decade ago, but then gradually increased up until the pandemic hit, so average paid losses on claims at all valuation points within 60 months of injury are above their post-reform lows...

September 21, 2023

2023 Edition of Workers’ Compensation Emerging Issues Analysis (LexisNexis)

By Thomas A. Robinson, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Workers’ Compensation Emerging Issues Analysis (LexisNexis) As we move through the third decade of the twenty-first century, the United States remains a land of contradictions. On the one hand, we have breathtaking mountains, sweeping shorelines, and landscapes of natural beauty. We enjoy cities and towns with beautiful neighborhoods and cityscapes. We have rural stretches...

September 21, 2023

RAND Releases Study on Alternative Payment Models for California’s Workers’ Compensation System

By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board Industrially injured workers in California are entitled to receive all reasonable and necessary medical care to cure or relieve the effects of a work-related injury, potentially for life. The employer is responsible for the costs of providing such medical care. Notwithstanding numerous...

September 21, 2023

California Compensation Cases September 2023

CALIFORNIA COMPENSATION CASES Vol. 88, No. 9 September 2023 A Report of En Banc and Significant Panel Decisions of the WCAB and Selected Court Opinions of Related Interest, With a Digest of WCAB Decisions Denied Judicial Review CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE LexisNexis Online Subscribers: You can link to your account on Lexis+ to read the complete headnotes and court decisions, en banc decisions, writ denied summaries...

September 17, 2023

California: Tribal Sovereignty: The Appeals Board Revisits the Five Factor Analysis Set Forth in Miami

By Hon. Susan V. Hamilton, Former Assistant Secretary and Deputy Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board It is well-settled law that federally recognized Indian Tribes have sovereign immunity from state workers’ compensation liability. Any notion to the contrary was dispelled by the Court of Appeal’s decision in Middletown Rancheria v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd. (1998) 60...

September 06, 2023

California: Nunes II

By Hon. Robert G. Rassp Disclaimer: The material and any opinions contained in this treatise are solely those of the authors and are not the opinions of the Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Workers’ Compensation, or the WCAB, or any other entity or individual. The materials are intended to be a reference tool only and are not meant to be relied upon as legal advice. After Nunes I, the applicant...

August 24, 2023

California: Depositions of Injured Workers

By Hon. Robert G. Rassp, Presiding Judge, and Hon. Clint Feddersen, Workers’ Compensation Judge (This article is excerpted from California Workers' Compensation Discovery (LexisNexis).) Disclaimer: The material and any opinions contained in this book are solely those of the authors and are not the opinions of the Department of Industrial Relations, Division of Workers’ Compensation, or the WCAB, or...

August 23, 2023

The Grand Bargain & Presumptions: Are Some Workers More Equal Than Others?

By Richard B. Rubenstein, Esq., Livingston, NJ Will COVID-19 Presumptions and IARC Monograph#132 Be Game-changers? The original Grand Bargain of workers’ compensation played no favorites: All workers were created equal when traumatically injured. Of course, workers’ compensation laws did not cover occupational diseases at the time of the making of the Grand Bargain. It took decades for emerging theories...

August 23, 2023

California Compensation Cases August 2023

CALIFORNIA COMPENSATION CASES Vol. 88, No. 8 August 2023 A Report of En Banc and Significant Panel Decisions of the WCAB and Selected Court Opinions of Related Interest, With a Digest of WCAB Decisions Denied Judicial Review CONTENTS OF THIS ISSUE LexisNexis Online Subscribers: You can link to your account on Lexis+ to read the complete headnotes and court decisions, en banc decisions, writ denied summaries, panel...

August 16, 2023

California: Nunes and the Path Forward: The Use of Vocational Evidence in Determining Permanent Disability and Apportionment

By Hon. Marguerite Sweeney, Former Commissioner, California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board In the recent en banc decision Nunes v. State of Calif, DMV (2023) 88 Cal. Comp. Cases 741 , the Appeals Board concluded that the concept of “vocational apportionment” is not legally cognizable, while emphasizing that substantial vocational evidence can be necessary to achieve an accurate overall PD rating...

July 31, 2023

CWCI: California Workers’ Comp Independent Medical Reviews Increased in First Half of 2023

Oakland, CA – A new California Workers’ Compensation Institute (CWCI) review of the Independent Medical Review (IMR) process used to resolve California workers’ comp medical disputes shows that after hitting an all-time low high in 2022, the number of IMR decision letters rose 4.1% in the first six months of 2023 compared to the first half of 2022, though the number of letters and individual decisions...