Product Description
This renowned work features more than 6,000 case discussions and valuable advice from a leading authority in California workers’ compensation law.
Since 1980, the late Judge Sheldon St. Clair’s California Workers’ Compensation Law & Practice has been the “go to” resource when tough questions arise.
California Workers’ Compensation Law & Practice provides start-to-finish guidance – over 1,400 pages – on readying and trying your case. You receive detailed explanations of procedures, strategies for circumventing traps and maximizing opportunities, solutions to common problems, and governing law for:
Determination of medical issues
- The AME/QME process
- Required notices
- Formal medical evaluation procedures
- Reports of medical evaluations
- Recovery of medical-legal costs
- Filing or serving reports
- Medical records
- Pre-trial discovery
Trial
- Setting for trial
- Expedited hearings
- Mandatory settlement conference
- Notices
- Disqualification of WCJs
- Arbitration process
- NIT procedures
Judgments
- Finding and award or order
- Interest and cost
- Lien claim procedures
- Credit, restitution, commutation
- Enforcement of awards
REVISION 15 HIGHLIGHTS
This edition keeps you up-to-date with 2 revamped chapters, statutory and rule changes, and hundreds of new cases updating all 24 chapters.
Revamped chapters:
- Chapter 8 Permanent Disability: has been updated and reorganized to present the material in a more logical way. Much of the text has been completely re-written to enhance clarity.
- The discussion of liens and related topics previously covered in various chapters has been revised and consolidated in Chapter 10 Liens and Medical-Legal Cost Petitions.
Other new and updated material:
- Reforms Enacted in 2018 are summarized. §1:55
- Fair Labor Standards Act: Plaintiff had valid FLSA cause of action when the plaintiff sued his employer in state court and employer’s attorney planned for ICE to take him into custody at a deposition and deport him. §2:220
- Exclusion for National Guard Service: Applicant was ineligible for workers’ compensation benefits for psychiatric injury arising out of a sexual assault that occurred while training with the California Army National Guard. §2:59
- Aggravation or Exacerbation: A second injury that causes no additional temporary or permanent disability is likely an exacerbation. §4:41
- Peace Officer and Firefighter Cancer Presumption: Can defendant’s failure to produce HARP documents create an adverse inference? §4:61
- Anti-Attribution Clauses: Appeals Board barred defendant from rebutting industrial causation where applicant contracted a blood-borne pathogen from a prior surgical scar and diverticulitis. §4:62
- MTUS: Applicant’s right to challenge diagnosis or treatment with second and third opinions versus defendant’s right to control treatment through utilization review. §9:60
- Resubmission to UR and the 12-Month Rule: Are the worker and treating doctor bound by the 12-month rule where there has been a misunderstanding of the medical facts? §9:61.2
- No Medical/Legal or Judicial Review of UR Denial: Court of Appeal cases reject arguments that the UR / IMR process is unconstitutional. §9:63
- Failure to Pay TD: WCJ did not err in ordering defendant to pay 13 years of temporary disability plus penalties where defendant failed to petition for termination of temporary disability. §12:02
- Safety Order Violations: Employer guilty of serious and willful misconduct for failing to utilize a “tag line” on a steel beam. §12:11
- Supplemental Job Displacement Vouchers: Applicant was not entitled to a second LC §5814 penalty for delay in providing a supplemental job displacement voucher. §12:117
- Officers/Owners as Employees: LC §3352(a)(16)(A) provides an exception from the definition of an employee for certain officers and members of the board of directors of quasi-public or private corporations. §13:245
- Settlement of One Part of Body Does Not Preclude Claim to Another: Applicant’s claim for cumulative injury to his brain during his professional football career was not barred by a Compromise and Release Agreement settling an earlier claim of cumulative injury to other body parts. §15:50
- Withdrawal Requests before Reconsideration Deadline Has Passed: Board finds no mutual mistake when defendant listed the wrong date of death which affected the amount of the death benefit payable to applicant. §15:102
- Setting Aside Stipulated Awards: Board returns several cases to trial level for further hearings on whether mistake was mutual or unilateral. Board finds no good cause to set aside stipulations for unilateral mistake. §15:135
- Non-attorney Representatives: Lien for fees filed by a non-attorney representative lien claimant was precluded by LC §4903(a), which does not allow fees for non-attorney representatives. §17:04
- Attorney Sanctions: Sanctions for failure to appear (§17:22); inappropriate language and misrepresentations (§17:123), and failure to return the client’s file (§17:131)
- Petition to Reduce Disability: Failure to file a timely petition to reduce permanent disability did not preclude WCJ from re-rating applicant’s current level of disability with regard to petition to re-open for new and further disability. §18:116
- IMR: Timeframes set forth in LC §4610.6(d) and ADR §9792.10.5(a)(1) with respect to the 45 days required for IMR to issue its decision are directory and not mandatory. §19:13
- IMR: First District Court of Appeal affirms Board’s decision denying the applicant’s petition for the Board to order its IMR organization to disclose identities of first and second independent medical reviewers.
- Disqualification for Cause: Allegations of bias without sufficient detail will generally not support disqualification. §21:03
- Permanent and Stationary Reports: One panel concludes that a final permanent and stationary report by the primary treating physician is not required so long as there has been an evaluation by a qualified medical evaluator addressing permanent disability. §21:06
- Right to Testify: WCJ did not err in allowing applicant, who had been deported to Mexico, to testify at trial via a cell phone using the FaceTime application. §21:112
- Record of Proceedings: In several cases, the Board reiterates the importance of creating a record including the identification of issues for determination to afford the parties due process. §21:190
- Newly-Discovered Evidence: Board grants reconsideration based on newly discovered evidence finding that WCJ had determined the applicant’s credibility based on a misleading drug testing report and the mistaken belief that the applicant was not taking his prescribed pain medications. §23:23
And More!
