WCDefenseCA

Your humble blogger, dear readers, has a little cousin named David.  I won’t bother you with the Grinberg  family roll call, but it’s sufficient to say that through a series of marriages, adoptions, blood vendettas, and one court order, your humble blogger has a young cousin who is soon to finish high school.  David, when he was reaching the end of eight grade, desperately wanted a smart phone.  His parents, not inclined to waste good money on a zombification device for their child, resisted.  But David was unstoppable: every possible chore was done before it was asked for, his grades saw improvement, and he readily gave up his allowance and reasonable gift requests hoping to get the smart phone of his dreams.

Eventually, his parents relented, and, just before high school started, he got the latest iPhone, with a budget for “apps” (kids these days – amirite?) and headphones and a carrying case, etc.  Little David was beyond happy, and when he brought it to his new high school, it was confiscated within a week.  You see, whatever deal he made with his parents didn’t trump the high school’s policy barring cell phones (even smart phones!) in school.  David was devastated – he had worked so hard, given up so much, and now it was all for naught.

At Thanksgiving dinner, David told your humble blogger about how unfair it was, and I agreed – even after all these years, the phone remained confiscated and the hurt was still there.

Now,  you can imagine, dear readers, if poor little David is still complaining about the unjust deprivation of the fruit of his labors, how is the defense community going to feel when it’s crown jewel of SB-863, IMR, has been once more placed in jeopardy of life and limb by the Courts!

In case you hadn’t heard, on December 3, 2014, the 1st District of the California Court of Appeal issued an Order to Show Cause – the Stevens matter, which your humble blogger humbly blogged about previously, is going to be reviewed by the Court of Appeal, which does have the power (but, hopefully, not the inclination) to overturn the IMR procedures on constitutional grounds.

The frustrating thing about this is, as many have predicted, while the gains made by the applicants, their attorneys, and the service providers/lien claimants in the workers’ compensation community are likely to stay, the bargained-for benefits of the defense community are quiet likely to be eroded by subsequent litigation and legislation.

IMR is one such gain, and this case may result in the loss of a major gain made by defendants.  The Court of Appeal, empowered to overturn the rule on constitutional grounds, could find that IMR’s procedures, or even the lack of WCAB review of the underlying UR decisions, is a deprivation of due process for injured workers.

In all likelihood, we won’t see a final result soon, as any decision by the Court of Appeal will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court.  In any case, it would be a good idea to start planning a new wave of legislative reforms.  Your humble blogger could only suggest that, this time, the self-insured groups be allowed into the negotiating room and that their collective resources and influence contribute to new legislation.  Some things on your humble blogger’s Channukah wish list?  That’s a long list (one for each candle-lit night), and perhaps we’ll have to wait for the first night of Channukah to get to it.

Another week awaits us, dear readers – cowboy (and cowgirl) up!