With the arrival of the new year, it’s time to bust out our calculators and prepare and update cost-of-living adjustments (COLA). As of January 1, 2021, all continuing permanent total and life pension benefits (70%…
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Now is the time to look back over 2020 and breathe a big sigh of relief. We could never have imagined this last year would turn out like this and, even now, we remain in…
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The Office of Administrative Law approved new Cal-OSHA regulations that contain numerous mandates for employers to protect their employees against COVID-19, which are effective immediately. In case you thought that the pandemic wasn’t creating enough…
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With Uber and Lyft threatening to close their doors in California, voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 22 on Election Day. The controversial proposition received 58.56% of the vote according to Ballotpedia.org at the time of this…
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by Eva Carrasco –  Like with most things in the world of workers’ compensation, the rules and regulations are clearly set forth in the California Labor Code. However, sometimes the rules are not codified, but are…
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California’s 4th District Court of Appeal recently issued a decision that appears to have taken a stab at killing the petition for contribution as we know it. On Oct. 6, 2020, the appellate court denied…
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Every year since California adopted use of the AMA Guides for determining permanent disability, we have received some ratings guidance from the DWC Annual Educational Conference. The DWC Educational Conferences present DWC statements of guidance…
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Despite the elimination of vocational rehabilitation in 2005, California has continued a modified system allowing injured workers to pursue retraining in the form of a vocational voucher. Currently, if modified work is not timely offered…
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The case of Barela v. Leprino Foods held that a utilization review determination does not bar permanent disability or temporary disability benefits. Instead, UR only limits defendant’s liability for the requested medical treatment. When an…
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by Claudia Peterson –  Labor Code Section 5402(b) provides a presumption of compensability if liability is not rejected within 90 days after the date a claim form is filed under Section 5401. If the claim is…
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