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  • 2010
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      • LACK OF CONTROL
        05/30/10
        Americans like to think of ourselves as in control.

        That's one reason for a largely grumpy current public mood. Technology doesn't seem able to solve the nation's worst environmental disaster in Louisiana. Jobs that seemed secure have been outsourced or eliminated.
      • COST CONTAINMENT: OUR OWN LITTLE THEATER OF THE ABSURD
        05/27/10
        Workers' comp sometimes has a Theater of the Absurd quality.

        Eugene Ionesco, Jean Genet or Samuel Beckett could have designed this one: a cost containment effort that becomes a major cost center problem itself.

        I'm referring to the increases in California workers'

      • VIOLENCE AT THE BOARD
        05/24/10
        The workers' comp world isn't immune from senseless violence.
        The latest reminder was the stabbing of a Southern California defense attorney, Joseph Rippinger, at a "lien fiesta" at the Los Angeles WCAB.

        Rippinger, an attorney with Graves and Bourassa, was atttack

      • THE SUPREMES
        05/21/10
        The Supremes have been busy.

        The California Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case on the legality of Schwarzenegger's furloughs. The case had been brought by the union CASE, which argued that SCIF employees were exempt from furloughs.

        In a way the case may be academic. G

      • FROM THE MEDICAL UNIT
        05/19/10
        The DWC Medical Unit has been a great source of irritation in the comp community over the past few years.

        Whether you speak to adjusters, defense attorneys, applicant attorneys or even judges, there has been a sense of frustration with the Medical Unit's delay in processing QME panel

      • ON THE BENCH
        05/18/10
        For some years I've served as a judge pro-tem at the Oakland WCAB.
        Yesterday was my first experience as a pro-tem since the introduction of EAMS.

        It has always amazed me how little is in the WCAB paper files (the "legacy files"). Disputes on a case may have been raging

      • ANATOMY OF A BUDGET SHORTFALL
        05/16/10
        The problems with the state budget will suck all the air out of the Capitol this year. No one expects any significant workers' comp legislation this year.

        To understand the magnitude of the budget shortfall and how difficult the choices will be, check out "The Anatomy Of A Budge

      • UNHAPPY CAMPERS
        05/14/10
        After today's budget revisions are unveiled by Governor Schwarzenegger, there will be a lot of unhappy campers.

        California is back in the hole, big time. The deficit may be over $18 billion.

        We're back where we were a year ago.

        Consider the last year. In th

      • OVERSIGHT
        05/13/10
        The DWC was called on the carpet in legislative oversight hearings in Sacramento yesterday.

        Held by the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee, hearings focused on the DWC's decision to ignore the statutory mandate to revise the 2005 PDRS (the permanent disability rating sch

      • THE TICKER
        05/12/10
        eMeg's campaign may be losing ground fast as Poizner tightens the race.
        Whitman has been spending money at a rate of 4 cents per second. That may just have to increase.

        The CWCI and DWC are out with studies on MPNs and medical treatment satisfaction. That will be fodder for comm

      • MOTHERS DAY
        05/09/10
        Happy Mothers day to my readers in cyberspace.

        I see many more mothers in my workers' comp practice than I did years ago when I began as an applicant attorney. Undoubtedly that's because women in so many families have gone to work in order for the family to make it economically.

      • BAGEL FRAUD
        05/06/10
        The continuing epidemic of employer workers' comp fraud continues.....

        But now it has infected your local bagel provider? Mon dieu! as Inspector Clouseau would have said.

        A purveyor of bagels in upscale Bay Area neighborhoods, Posh Bagel had previously been noted for vegan

      • THE NURSES BILL
        05/04/10
        Should there be a legal presumption that infectious diseases and neck and back injuries contracted by nurses are work related?

        That's the thesis of AB 1994, sponsored by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley). The bill would apply to more than 350,000 private employees.

      • AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION
        05/02/10
        My momma taught me that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

        Surely that's true for California.

        Occupational health and safety enforcement has been in free fall in California. In November 2009, Federal OSHA stats revealed that California issued the lowest rate

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