Worker's Compensation

Plaintiff recovered a $115,000 jury verdict after having rejected defendant's $200,000 998 offer.  This decision holds that the defendant's post-offer costs awarded by the trial court under CCP 998 must be subtracted from the $115,000 jury verdict before computing the amount of the judgment payable to the workers' comp. lienor under Lab. Code 3856.  Since the post-offer costs exceeded $115,000,… Read More

To have standing to move to disqualify another party's attorney, the movant must generally be a present or former client of the challenged attorney, or at least a person who shared confidential information with that attorney in the course of a confidential or fiduciary relationship.  Otherwise, the movant is generally not affected by any breach of the attorney's duties of… Read More

The workers' compensation system pre-empts tort claims by workers against employers’ utilization reviewers, who are empowered to modify or deny treatment requests. Read More

The workers' compensation exclusivity doctrine is inapplicable to claims under the Fair Housing and Employment Act. Read More

An administrative law judge’s determination denying plaintiff worker compensation benefits for psychiatric injuries allegedly caused by employment discrimination or harassment precludes a later civil suit under the Fair Employment and Housing Act for the same alleged acts of employment discrimination or harassment. Read More

Under Labor Code 3744, the California Self-Insurers’ Security Fund may sue in court (not before the Workers Compensation Appeals Board) and recover workers compensation benefits paid on behalf of an insolvent self-insured temporary staffing agency from the agency’s customers who were the injured workers’ special employers. Read More

The trial court improperly granted summary judgment to employer defendant on employee plaintiff's claim of FEHA-prohibited retaliation for supporting a co-worker's complaint of sex discrimination, after she provided sufficient evidence of (1) adverse employment actions and (2) retaliatory motive.   Read More

Insured company misrepresented in its worker’s compensation insurance application that its workers traveled only within a 200 mile radius of its headquarters in California, so appeals board needed to determine whether insurer’s resulting rescission was effective.  Read More

When an employer pays an employee on a commission basis, the employer must separately pay the worker the minimum wage for the meal and rest break time, and cannot later deduct those wages from the employee’s future commissions.  Read More

The Workers Compensation Act did not preempt plaintiff's claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress caused by her co-workers who staged a mock robbery at her cashier's window, since the Act does not preempt intentional torts that are not part of the compensation bargain.  Read More