News & Analysis as of

Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) Labor Code

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

Who Pays What: The Pitfalls of Contribution and Reimbursement Among Co-Defendants in Workers’ Compensation

The recent Barahona v. ABM Janitorial Services (2024) 53 CWCR 4, decision sheds light on a common but often misunderstood issue in California workers’ compensation: how liability is shared among multiple employers and...more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

WCAB Issues En Banc Decision Providing New Guidelines on Combination of Impairments Via Kite

The WCAB has issued a rare en banc decision providing guidance on the applicant’s burden of proof in rebutting the use of the “Combined Values Chart” (CVC) when combining impairments pursuant to the Kite decision. The WCAB...more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

The Duty to Investigate: Applicant’s Attorneys’ New “Gold Mine” in CCR §10109(a)

It is well-established that the purpose of the workers’ compensation system is to provide benefits to employees who suffer on-the-job injuries or certain work-related illnesses. To adhere to the purpose of the workers’...more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

Board Panel Makes it Clear that the 60 Day Time Limit to Act on a Petition for Reconsideration is Tolled when an Error Occurs at...

The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board has designated its March 27, 2024, opinion in Sandra Ja’Chim Scheuing v. Livermore National Laboratory, permissibly self-insured, administered by Gallagher Bassett, as a significant...more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

The Covid-19 Presumptions: Are They Truly Gone?

For more than three years, virtually everyone in the California workers’ compensation community had become familiar with the Covid-19 presumptions. Labor Code sections 3212.86, 3212.87, and 3212.88 were passed as emergency...more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

WCAB En Banc Doubles Down on Rejection of “Vocational Apportionment” in Nunes II

The WCAB offered clarity on the complex topic of “vocational apportionment” in an en banc decision issued on June 22, 2023: Grace Nunes v. State of California, Dept. of Motor Vehicles, legally uninsured; State Compensation...more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

2023 CAAA Conferences: What Are Applicant’s Attorneys Saying?

Twice a year, the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association has a conference to discuss everything from changes in Workers’ Compensation Law, to developing new strategies to increase recoveries for their clients. The 2023...more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

Court of Appeal Nixes WCAB’s “Grant for Further Study”

The California Court of Appeal for the Second District issued a writ of mandate on August 1, 2023, ending the WCAB’s longstanding procedure of granting Petitions for Reconsideration for Further Study. Unfortunately, however,...more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

WCAB Rejects Concept of “Vocational Apportionment” in Rare En Banc Decision

Further Restrictions on Vocational Apportionment - As most workers’ compensation practitioners can attest, vocational evidence has seen a resurgence in recent years, as the applicant’s bar attempts to obtain Awards of 100%...more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

Time for the WCAB to Act on Petitions for Reconsideration

Do you have any cases that have been pending on Reconsideration and remain unresolved for what you believe to be an unreasonable period of time? If so, you should be aware that ongoing delays issuing decisions at the WCAB...more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

Steps to Prevent and Combat a Poorly Written Medical-Legal Report

The WCAB must ground its decisions in substantial evidence. We practitioners must review medical-legal reports and any doctor’s depositions to ensure the medical record, when read as a whole, constitutes substantial evidence....more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

Applied Materials v. WCAB – Physician Misconduct Compensable and Fitzpatrick Affirmed

The Sixth District Court of Appeal recently issued its decision in the matter of Applied Materials v. WCAB. The decision was initially issued as unpublished and the California Workers’ Compensation Institute obtained an...more

Laughlin, Falbo, Levy & Moresi LLP

The Covid Vaccines: A Panacea for the Pandemic

As we continue to struggle through the COVID-19 pandemic, there may be light at the end of the tunnel, as California continues with its plan for distribution and administration of approved COVID-19 vaccines. As with all...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

AB 203: How Global Climate Change and Valley Fever Impact Workers’ Compensation

According to a recent University of California Irvine study, scientists predict that with increasing temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns associated with client change, the incidence of human coccidioidomycosis...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

Bill Collections Fail With Neglect Of WCAB Administrative Directions

In Meadowbrook Insurance Co. v. Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) (DFS Interpreting), No. C088882, November 21, 2019, the Court of Appeal for the 3rd District of California held that an interpreter company’s failure...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

Appeals Board Clarifies Medical-Legal Lien Burden of Proof

The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) issued a unanimous en banc decision on November 14, 2019 clarifying what the initial burden of proof is for a medical-legal lien claimant and what are defendant’s obligations in...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

Everybody’s Working for the Weekend, But Not on a Saturday According to Labor Code

In its recent significant panel decision, Puni Pa’u v. Department of Forestry/Cal Fire (Filed 09/11/2019), the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) concluded that Saturday is not a working day when applying Labor Code...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

WCAB analysis may invite a wave of new litigation

In Wilson v. State of California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the WCAB held that multiple factors must be considered by a court making a determination whether an injury is catastrophic and qualifies for an...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

Court Orders Retreat From Workers’ Compensation Apportionment To Non-industrial Causes

Workers’ compensation litigation often is driven by disagreement over the apportionment of permanent disability. A vast body of case law exists reflecting the courts’ efforts to resolve conflicts between the provisions of the...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

When Does Permissible Communication Become Impermissible Information In AME Contacts?

On January 23, 2017, the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board issued its first en banc decision since April 2016. In Bradley Maxham v. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, ADJ3540065, the Board clarifies...more

Haight Brown & Bonesteel LLP

Court Blocks Attempt to Circumvent the Med-Legal Process

On October 28, 2015, the Second District Court of Appeal, Division Six, published its opinion in Margaret Batten v. Long Beach Memorial Hospital, B260916, in which it determined that a self-procured medical-legal report...more

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