Workers’ compensation insurance is just that – insurance meant to provide speedy and practical assistance to workers injured while on the job.  It is not insurance against car accidents or a tool to get back at your boss.  For Yadder Espinosa, of Ventura County, this is somewhat of a rude awakening.

WCDefenseCA doesn’t normally name names, but when workers’ compensation fraudsters finally get the conviction (criminal, not moral) that they earned, your righteous blogger has no hesitation in saving potential-future employers of such criminals from making a hiring mistake.

The basic story is as follows:  Mr. Espinosa gets into a non-industrial vehicle collision and begins treating various body parts.  Some time latter, he is fired from his job and marched off the premises.  He then returns, allegedly to recover some personal items, before stepping on an imaginary banana peel and “falling.”  Refusing medical treatment, he then drives himself to the hospital and claims injury to the same body parts affected by the vehicle collision.

Throughout the claim, while receiving $40,000 thanks to his fraud, Mr. Espinosa didn’t disclose the vehicle collision or even the fact that he was receiving treatment for the injury.

District Attorney Gregory D. Totten is to be credited with securing a felony guilty plea to a violation of Insurance Code section 1871.4.  Mr. Totten intends to seek full restitution of the $40,000 wrongfully obtained by Mr. Espinosa.  In all likelihood, however, the money has been spent, in whole or in part, and there are no funds from which to reimburse the District Attorney’s office for its time, much less the costs incurred by the employer – think of the swarm of liens, the fee-hungry applicant’s attorney, and, of course, the cost of the defense.  The damage is done and defendant will probably never be made whole.

Such is the danger of allowing fraud to go unnoticed, unchecked, unpunished, or undeterred – the employer and the district attorney’s office are to be commended for holding the line in this case and setting an example for the rest of the workers’ compensation community.