The family at the Law Offices of Bradford & Barthel wants to wish each and every one of our readers, clients, vendors, judges, and opponents across the aisle happy holidays and happy new year.
As the calendar gets ready to flip toward January 2025, we can take a look back at 2024’s developments impacting the California workers’ compensation system, which include:
- The WCAB clearly issued more important decisions – such as en banc and significant panel decisions – compared to years past. Perhaps this signals that the Appeals Board is better-staffed or working more efficiently than in years past, now that it has six sitting commissioners and three deputy commissioners. Of course, just like any appellate court – those commissioners are also need incredibly-thoughtful staff attorneys, in the same manner that appellate justices have their own clerks. The commissioners’ and WCAB staff’s hard and thankless work is evident in the much larger number of significant decisions in 2024, and leads one to wonder what important decisions are coming down the pike in 2025.
- 2024 will apparently be the last year where most hearings were held via telephone. This is because on Dec. 3, 2024, the Division of Workers’ Compensation announced that as of March 1, 2025, it will be switching to CourtCall videoconferencing to hold status conferences, mandatory settlement conferences, priority conferences, and lien conferences. For those who don’t know, these types of conferences have been telephonic since the pandemic began in 2020. The court did use a video platform called LifeSize for approximately two years, but retired it presumably due to cost.
- In 2024, we saw more new, well-qualified judges take the bench. They appeared to get settled in relatively quickly, as we observed newer judges running quick and efficient calendars. Your humble blogger noticed hiring and requests for applications at a few boards, so there is still a need for judges at this time.
- A change in volume also appears to have occurred, with more applicant’s attorneys filing cases at the Van Nuys Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board.
- With the Covid-19 presumptions expiring, we saw far fewer Covid cases being plead or even reported in 2024. Your humble blogger observed a small uptick of nonindustrial cases during summer, but with that aside it’s clear that 2024 had far fewer Covid cases than years past.
As we head into 2025, one has to wonder what changes Gov. Newsom’s last term will bring us from a legislative standpoint. 2024 was a relatively quiet legislative year, and lawmakers on the Assembly Insurance Committee previously hinted that one could see a reform bill before he is termed out in January 2027. If that is true, that means that the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions are his last chance to pass a reform bill.
We at the Law Offices of Bradford & Barthel are thankful for all that the workers’ compensation community has given us in 2024, and we look forward to working with all of you in 2025.
We wish you the happiest of holidays and a happy new year!
Got a question about workers’ compensation defense issues? Feel free to contact John P. Kamin. Mr. Kamin is a workers’ compensation defense attorney and partner at Bradford & Barthel’s Woodland Hills location, where he monitors the recent legislative affairs as the firm’s Director of the Editorial Board. Mr. Kamin previously worked as a journalist for WorkCompCentral, where he reported on work-related injuries in all 50 states. Please feel free to contact John at jkamin@bradfordbarthel.com or at (818) 654-0411.
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