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      • DOWN 64%
        03/29/07
        The rates California workers' comp insurers charge employers were deregulated in the early 1990s. Since then, the California Insurance Commissioner makes a non-binding recommendation on rates.

        The rates recommended by the Insurance Commissioner often follow the recommendations of an

      • TODAY'S LEGISLATIVE HEARING ON PERMANENT DISABILITY
        03/28/07
        Is the glass half empty or half full? Listeners to the testimony in Sacramento at today's California Assembly Insurance Committee hearing on the effect of recent changes on permanent disability and temporary disability may have wondered... are these guys all on the same planet?

        Repre

      • COTO'S QUEST
        03/27/07
        On Wednesday, March 28 at 9 AM, the California Assembly's Insurance Committee (chaired by San Jose Democrat Joe Coto) will hold a public information hearing on the effect of recent revisions to the workers' comp permanent disability rating schedule.

        The Schwarzenegger administra

      • CAN'T GET NO SATISFACTION
        03/23/07
        Few people in California haven't heard Mick Jagger of The Rolling Stones squawking "I Can't Get No Satisfaction." He was wailing with existential angst about finding meaning in a world bombarding him with useless information about how white his shirts could be (as well as his sea

      • FOURTH TIME THE CHARM?
        03/22/07
        The California Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) has really been struggling to "get it right" in formulating regulations concerning utilization review.

        The FOURTH set of revised proposed regulations has just been unveiled. These are available at the following site:
      • SACRAMENTO AND THE LOCKOUT
        03/19/07
        In a post a few days ago, I discussed Senator Perata's lockout of the so-called Senate Mod Squad. Three state senators were briefly locked out of their offices to show Perata's disapproval of their attempt to set up a legislative bloc within the state senate's Democratic caucus.

      • THE JUSTICE GAP
        03/16/07
        I rarely read the California Bar Journal, the State Bar's official publication. But the March 2007 edition featured a graphic that caught my eye. The article focused on California's "justice gap."

        Did you know that there is one private lawyer for every 250 Californians

      • PERATA AND THE MOD SQUAD
        03/12/07
        Interesting reports today about some political dissension in the California State Senate.

        It seems that State Senate Pro Tem (think head honcho) Don Perata ordered a change of locks. Locked out of their offices were three Southern California State Senators, all recently elected after se

      • $3.6 MILLION DISCRIMINATION SETTLEMENT
        03/10/07
        Boxer & Gerson LLP lawyers recently settled an employment discrimination lawsuit against the City Of Emeryville for $3.6 million.

        Boxer & Gerson LLP partner Leslie Levy and associate Darci Burrell represented the plaintiff in the case, which is one of the largest employment law re

      • MEDICATION ERRORS
        03/09/07
        Ever have concerns about whether you are taking the right medicines in the right dosage? Ever wonder whether the different pills you are taking could cancel each other out or have unintended health side affects?

        I see cases where some injured workers are taking as many as 10 different ty

      • THE DOCTOR'S APOTHECARY
        03/08/07
        Should California doctors who treat workers' comp patients be allowed to dispense medication out of their offices? If so, should they receive big markups on the medicines they dispense?

        We are not talking occasional medication samples that a physician may give to the patient. Rather,

      • CONVERGING
        03/07/07
        As noted in prior posts, this year's California legislative debate over health care reform has implications for California workers' comp.

        Various forms of expanded health care coverage are being proposed by Gov. Schwarzenegger, Senate Pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabi

      • CALIFORNIA HOSPITAL QUALITY
        03/06/07
        Hospitals, like other things in life, are not all equal.

        If you are a California injured worker, you might want to check the following site to see highly rated hospitals in your area. The site CalHospitalCompare.org is a project of the California HealthCare Foundation. CalHospitalCompare.

      • MAKING LACK OF WORKERS' COMP COVERAGE A FELONY
        03/06/07
        When workers' comp fraud is mentioned, usually the press focuses on fraud by the worker.

        But in California, there is a growing awareness of a different sort of fraud -- premium fraud by employers who either underreport their payroll or fail to seek coverage at all.

        This is

      • SB 936
        03/05/07
        You may be hearing a lot about SB 936 here between now and September.

        SB 936 is a "spot bill" held by State Senate Pro Tem Don Perata of Oakland. A spot bill is a placeholder bill; the bill can be gutted or stripped later to include different language.

        In 2006, Senato

      • PELOSI AND BUSH ON LABOR RIGHTS COLLISION COURSE
        03/05/07
        Even though the general focus of this blog is California workers' comp, sometimes there are related topics I must discuss. Workers' comp is not an issue in a vacuum; it is one aspect of employment law and labor rights.

        Ever hear someone tell you that "both political parties

      • SAN FRANCISCO'S NEW SKYLINE
        03/04/07
        As a kid, I spent hours playing on my living room floor with an erector set. This toy consisted of a pack of metal pieces (think pretend steel beams) with various screws, pulleys, rivets and the like. I'd spend afternoons dreaming of designing and constructing buildings. Erector sets are now kn

      • THE VIEW FROM DUBAI
        03/03/07
        The view from Dubai, United Arab Emirates... the Arabian Gulf megalopolis being built (along with its sister Emirate Abu Dhabi) by a group of sheiks with fantastic oil wealth.

        Workerscompzone has been quiet this week while on a trip to Dubai and Oman (Dubai's southerly neighbor, a ra

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