Sullivan on Comp Blog

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant financial consequences for many employers and employees. Due to the overall need to protect the public at large from the spread of COVID-19, the state of California and many local governments have issued stay-at-home orders, closing nonessential businesses or allowing them to remain open only if their employees could telecommute. Many businesses were forced to shut down during the stay-at-home orders, and many employees found themselves out of work.

In 2016, the California Legislature passed two bills to combat workers' compensation fraud, AB 1244 and SB 1160. As a result of this legislation, per LC 4615, any lien and any accrual of interest related to the lien, are automatically stayed on the filing of criminal charges against a physician or provider for an offense involving fraud against the workers’ compensation system, medical billing fraud, insurance fraud or fraud against the Medicare or Medi-Cal programs.

In 2004, the Legislature made a diametric change to the law on apportionment. Labor Code § 4663 was amended to allow apportionment to causation. Under this statute, employers are only liable for the percentage of permanent disability directly caused by the injury arising out of and in the course of employment.

The exclusive remedy rule limits an employee's remedies against an employer for injuries sustained during the course of the employment. The purpose of the exclusive remedy rule is to protect the employer's side of the compensation bargain. Under the compensation bargain, the employer assumes liability for industrial personal injury or death without regard to fault in exchange for limitations on the amount of that liability. The employee is given relatively swift and certain payment of benefits to cure or relieve the effects of industrial injury without having to prove fault but, in exchange, gives up the wider range of damages potentially available in tort.

Join us for the live SOC Webinar 3rd Quarter Update - 2017

Breakthrough Thinking in Causation of Injury and the Rice Case - Part 2

A portion of all sales of Sullivan on Comp are donated to Save the Rhino International, a charitable organization dedicated to stopping the poaching of rhinos worldwide.

Join us for the live SOC Webinar 2nd Quarter Update - 2017

Apportionment to Genetic Factors and Immutable Characteristics: The Rice Case and its Implications

Part 1: Psychiatric Claims

Join us for the live SOC Webinar 1st Quarter Update - 2017: Highlights of 2016.

Starting February 1st, "Sullivan on Comp," currently hosted on WorkCompCentral.com, will be hosted right here on SullivanOnComp.com.

Other than a new location, very little will change. You will have:

• the same user name and login,

• the same expiration/renewal date,

• the same renewal date and book replacement schedule.

Corporate subscribers will receive replacement desktop icons. (Until then, current ones will work by forwarding you to this site as an already-authorized user.)

And, if you are also a WorkCompCentral subscriber, you’ll be able to go back and forth between SOC and WorkCompCentral.com with a single click, while staying logged in to both.

This is the place to keep up-to-date with the latest news and information about our Sullivan On Comp publication. Please take a minute to subscribe to our blog, which will allow you to receive alerts for upcoming posts and learn more about our comprehensive California Workers’ Compensation treatise.