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      • RONNIE CAPLANE: WHAT'S ON THE WCAB'S PLATE
        09/30/07
        Greetings again from Anaheim. Little kids wearing mouse ears fill the streets. And lawyers fill the corridors here at the State Bar Convention, taking seminars in topics as wide ranging as "How to Do Business in Vietnam" to "Dealing with Difficult Clients."

        It's h

      • CARRIE NEVANS: GOVERNOR WON'T SIGN SEVERAL BILLS
        09/29/07
        Greetings from Anaheim. The Happiest Place on Earth (Disneyland) is just down the street. It's here that the California State Bar is holding its annual convention.

        Carrie Nevans (acting Administrative Director of the California Division of Workers' Compensation) spoke on Friday

      • IT'S A GLOBAL WORLD
        09/27/07
        This weekend, the California Applicants' Attorneys Association is sponsoring a seminar about the nitty gritty of law practice under the new workers' comp laws. Entitled "Managing a Successful Practice," the mantra will apparently be "work smarter, not harder."

      • DAN WALTERS: SCHWARZENEGGER & THE "JOB KILLER" BILLS
        09/26/07
        Dan Walters is one of the most experienced reporters in Sacramento, covering the legislative beat for decades.

        Here's his take in today's Sacramento Bee on the likely fate of the workers' comp bills under consideration by Schwarzenegger:
        http://www.sacbee.com/111/v-

      • SAN JOSE MERC CALLS FOR PERMANENT DISABILITY ADJUSTMENT
        09/25/07
        Yesterday's San Jose Mercury editorial on workers' comp makes the follwing observation:

        "..the Governor must address the fact that the weekly benefits provided to California's permanently disabled workers are the fourth lowest in the nation."

        The Me

      • DEVIL'S IN THE DETAILS
        09/23/07
        A late summer Sunday afternoon. In many parts of the state, a hint in the air that the seasons are about to change. It's that time of year when the promise of summer's long, easy days seems to be winding down. Not exactly the time many of us want to ponder the minutia of workers' comp

      • GIVING THEM TIME TO SPEAK
        09/19/07
        One of my guilty pleasures is listening to right-wing talk radio when I'm driving. Not what you'd expect from a Bay Area liberal/libertarian.

        But I enjoy listening to some of the talking heads rant and rave about reinstitution of the Federal Communication Commission's "

      • THE FAIR EMPLOYMENT AND HOUSING COMMISSION: NOT DISMANTLED YET
        09/18/07
        Perhaps you're too distracted by news that a Nebraska state senator is suing God (and no, it's not because USC's Trojans just gave the Cornhusker football team a major whuppin' on Husker home turf) to notice other things. But focus for a moment on the strong allegations yesterday

      • MESSIN' WITH DFEH
        09/17/07
        The Schwarzenegger administration is attempting to get rid of the legal staff at the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission. These lawyers hear and rule on employment discrimination cases. As a result, they have special expertise in the complicated area of employment discrimination law.
      • TPA FRAUD
        09/13/07
        Not all of the interesting action in Sacramento this week has been at the legislature. On Tuesday, there was a meeting of the Fraud Assessment Commission up in the River City.

        The commission heard a report from Tom Veale, the president of Tristar Risk Management. Focusing on third-party a

      • THE FINAL LEGISLATIVE DAY
        09/12/07
        The legislature wound up their regular session in the wee hours this morning.

        Among the bills passing yesterday (on their way to "enrollment," which is a step on the way to the Governor's desk) were AB 338 (Coto) and AB 1073
        (Nava).

        The Coto bill will allow

      • GUT AND AMEND
        09/11/07
        As my last post noted, the legislature approved SB 936 (Perata) yesterday; it's a bill to increase permanent disability benefits.

        Today I couldn't help but wonder whatever became of the sister bill of SB 936 (Nunez). Regular readers of this blog may recall that AB 1212 would hav

      • FURTHER LEGISLATIVE UPDATE
        09/11/07
        There was more action yesterday on bills to change the 2-year temporary disability cap (AB 338 sponsored by Joe Coto) and to loosen the 24-visit therapy cap (AB 1073 by Pedro Nava).

        AB 338, which has been amended recently, passed the California Senate on a 37 to 3 vote (Machado, McClintoc

      • DEAD ON ARRIVAL
        09/10/07
        A health care reform package, AB 8, was passed by the legislature today. But the package is dead on arrival. Gov. Schwarzenegger will probably veto this bill within the next week and call for a special legislative session to focus on health care reform.

        It's an issue of great importa

      • AB 1636: THE MENDOZA VOUCHER BILL
        09/09/07
        AB 1636 passed the California Senate on September 7 and appears headed toward the Governor. The bill would expedite the provision of a retraining voucher to injured workers who have been determined unable to return to work.

        If the worker does not return to work within 60 days of being fou

      • FAST AND FURIOUS
        09/06/07
        Fast and Furious. And I don't mean the Vin Diesel movie of 2001 (which happens to be the last film I saw at a drive-in).

        No, I'm talking about the fast and furious pace of legislative activity in Sacramento as the legislature moves to a close of the session. A number of workers&

      • THE VIERRA CASE ON ATTORNEY FEES
        09/04/07
        One of the consequences of the 2004 California workers' comp reform has been the shrinking of the pool of attorneys representing claimants. Experienced attorneys have been closing up shop, and there is barely a trickle of new attorneys coming into the applicant-side practice.

        As with

      • HAPPY LABOR DAY
        09/03/07
        It's been a strange summer. NFL star involved in dogfighting. Hypocritical family values U.S. senators trolling for sex whereever they can get it. The Taliban re-surging, and nuclear-armed Pakistan looking ever more unstable. Art-house cinema director greats Michelangelo Antonioni and Ingmar Be

      • PUTTIN' IT TOGETHER
        09/01/07
        The real drama in Sacramento right now is on the health care reform issue. Because the negotiations among the "Big Five" (Schwarzenegger, Perata, Nunez, Villines and Ackerman) on this issue are behind closed doors, it's hard to sort out the smoke and mirrors.

        Only a few day

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