Workers Comp Zone

A Partner at Boxer & Gerson LLP, Julius Young has practiced worker’s compensation law and social security disability law since 1979. He has represented thousands of individuals who have sustained life-changing injuries or illnesses while on the job. In every case, his goal is to secure the medical treatments his clients need.

August 21, 2019

GREAT APPOINTMENT

Governor Newsom recently made a great appointment for a job important to California workers. On August 15 the Governor announced the appointment of Douglas Parker to head Cal OSHA (as the chief of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health at the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency). I’ve known Doug Parker since 2016, when […]


August 14, 2019

TEMPEST OVER QME FEES

An August 2019 California DWC proposal for a revised payment system for QMEs has again caused an uproar among doctors who perform evaluations in California workers’ comp cases. The proposed regulations (see link at the bottom of this post) are the subject of a DWC comment forum which closes on August 23, 2019. The proposal […]


August 6, 2019

SHAKY START

California’s new Insurance Commissioner, Ricardo Lara, is off to a shaky start. Lara is not directly involved in setting workers’ comp policy or administering California’s workers’ comp system, but he does have authority over setting recommended workers’ comp rates. And his office has oversight over some insurers and the policies they can sell. Lara is […]


August 1, 2019

SMOKE

California has now adopted interim standards for worker smoke exposure. Those standards (see link at bottom of this post), promulgated by the California Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board, will be in effect for a year. The major California wildfires over the last few years resulted in large portions of the state being swathed in […]


July 27, 2019

NEWSOM REAPPOINTS SWEENEY TO WCAB

Governor Newson has reappointed Marguerite Sweeney to the WCAB. Sweeney is widely respected in the comp community, and congratulations are in order. Here is the July 26 announcement from the Governor’s office: “Marguerite Sweeney, 68, of San Francisco, has been reappointed to the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, where she has served since 2012. Sweeney was […]


July 24, 2019

MORE TECH

Expect much more high tech in the workers’ comp world. That’s one of the main takeaways from my attendance at the California Coalition on Workers’ Compensation (CCWC) 2019 conference at Disneyland. I was there last week to speak as a participant on the blogger’s panel, speaking along with Judge Robert Rassp, consultant Mark Pew, and […]


July 15, 2019

WCAB EN BANC REJECTS SCIF APPEAL

Today the WCAB issued an en banc decision rejecting SCIF’s appeal in the prior en banc decision  of Kris Wilson V. State of California Cal Fire (now “Wilson I”). SCIF had filed for reconsideration, seeking to overturn the WCAB’s formulation as to what constitutes “catastrophic” for purposes of Labor Code 4660.1(c)(2)(B), which governs an exception for […]