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.

May 6, 2019

HARD TO DEFINE

One of the most contentious issues in this year’s Sacramento legislative session is the debate over several bills which would define who is designated an employee under California laws. There are three pending bills (see links at the end of this post): AB 5 (Gonzalez) would essentially require the “ABC” test that was used by […]


April 27, 2019

MORE DOMINOES FALL

More dominoes have fallen in the matter concerning former DIR director Christine Baker. The California State Personnel Board has issued an April 9, 2019 “Special Investigation Report” (see link at bottom of this post) involving nepotism by Baker during her tenure at DIR. This report fleshes out additional details regarding many of the matters outlined […]


April 18, 2019

COZY DOCTORS

The Center for Investigative Reporting recently published another revealing story on questionable workers’ comp claims handling at the Tesla factory in Fremont, California. This April 2019 piece (see link below), by investigative journalist Will Evans, focuses on a cozy relationship between Tesla and Dr. Basil Besh, a prominent Bay Area orthopedic upper-extremity specialist. The article […]


April 9, 2019

REMEMBER IBR?

After the 2012 reforms most of the attention went to IMR and the huge volume of UR disputes that wound up on the doorstep of Maximus, the DWC’s IMR provider. IBR, on the other hand, has gotten almost no attention. One would have thought that there was little friction between payors and medical providers over […]


April 5, 2019

L'AFFAIR BAKER

Most of California’s major newspapers have covered the controversy surrounding former DIR head Christine Baker and the report of the California State Auditor which I outlined in my last post (see some links to the newspaper coverage below). According to a LA Times report, Governor Newsom’s office and new Insurance Commissioner Ricard0 Lara are not […]


March 27, 2019

A SORDID TALE

With yesterday’s release of a report by California State Auditor Elaine Howle, lingering questions have now been answered about the 2018 sudden departure of Christine Baker from her post as Director of the California Department of Industrial Relations. Howle’s report details a pattern of nepotism, lies, favoritism, manipulation, retaliation, creation of a culture of fear […]


March 20, 2019

THE VIOLENT ACT EXCEPTION

How has the law been developing on the “violent act” exception to California Labor Code 4660.1(c)(1)? That’s an issue I had occasion to look at recently as I prepared for a presentation on a panel with defense attorney Jake Jacobsmeyer at the yearly Montarbo Seminar in Sacramento. We spoke at the invitation of Red Bluff […]