Doom and Gloom.  Nobody likes hearing it, and most people don’t like speaking it.  But, dearest readers, your humble blogger brings tidings more of ill than of good.  The good news first: much to the surprise of anyone involved with the California workers’ compensation system, California is not the most expensive state for workers’ comp.  It is not even the second most expensive state in the Union.  The first prize goes to Alaska and the second to Connecticut, based on a recent study by the Oregon Department of Consumer and Business Services.

Now comes the bad news – California is ranked #3, up from a rank of #5 in 2010.  Costs are plenty to go around in the state of Napa fruit and San Francisco nuts – there’s the litigation, the administrative costs, and the medical bills (don’t forget that little number).

Additionally, there is the underground economy – employers, in violation of the law, declining to insure their employees against industrial injuries and unfairly taking business away from their competitors that do.

California’s neighbors, Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona, all enjoy significantly lower rankings of 39, 46, and 37, respectively.

Despite the free status of this publication, your humble blogger remains a very self-interested workers’ compensation defense attorney, and has discovered, to his infinite sadness, that his bar won’t stock itself.  California needs business to stay put and stop running for the state border with jobs and tax revenue in tow.

Some of the provisions of SB-863 will hopefully help with that, but, in the meantime, rejoicing in the fact that California is not Alaska or Connecticut, is a small victory indeed.