My dear readers,

Some of you may not realize how absolutely dedicated your humble blogger is to your continued entertainment and, to a possibly equal extent, to keeping you up to date on all the happenings of the workers’ compensation world.  Not only do I suffer the verbal abuse of applicants, their attorneys, lien claimants, and judges in defending the endless onslaught of claims… I am also willing to suffer the physical abuse that will no doubt follow this post.

A Los Angeles City firefighter was arrested recently for allegedly filing false workers’ compensation insurance claims.  After claiming he was unable to do his job as a firefighter, he continued to compete in various mixed martial arts events, winning a good number of them.  In fact, on March 7, he tweeted “[j]ust finished running 2.5 miles in 16:44 min.”

This is one of the more blatant examples of fraud in our system, but such stories are both good and bad for the industry.  On the bright side, the story highlights that fraud does happen; that it happens amongst some of the more highly regarded and respected members of the community (including police and firefighters); and that some people are just plain cheaters.

But such stories also have a negative effect.  They take away from the fact that most fraud isn’t this high-profile or blatant.  Most fraud includes subtle theft – claiming an injury prior to retirement; sitting at home instead of working while collecting disability checks; claiming a recovery from an injury to return to work, only to cause oneself greater impairment.

In this case, the fraudster (who is probably on his way over here to beat me up right now) screamed his deceit from the mountaintops – most of the parasites unlawfully draining the resources of California’s employers, insurers, and government entities are not so easily caught, nor their apprehension so widely broadcast.