A bill that could see more applicant’s attorneys disbarred if they get caught participating in a capping scheme to obtain clients has been signed and is now law. The new law removes any leeway the California State Bar had and now requires it to use its summary disbarment powers whenever there’s a felony conviction for …
The California Attorney General, the California Labor Commissioner, and the city attorneys for San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles announced a $272.5 million settlement with Lyft covering employee misclassifications …
Several bills backed by the California Department of Insurance were signed into law, but two in particular interest the workers’ comp community. Those two are SB 1209 by Sen. Ben Allen (D-El Segundo) and SB 1206 by the Senate Insurance Committee. Allen, a candidate to succeed Lara as Insurance Commissioner, carried the bill to expand …
The Division of Workers’ Compensation has a stacked regulatory agenda planned for the coming year – some proposed regulations are the result of recent legislation while others are part of ongoing rulemaking efforts. Newly installed Administrative Director Nicole Richardson says the agency will be rolling out regulations to implement its planned electronic doctor’s first report …
California’s legislators completed their work for the session last month by passing many bills, but only a few related to the workers’ comp community. Earlier in the session, there was chatter about a comprehensive workers’ comp reform package, but in the end, any such discussion was put off until the next legislative session. Before legislators …
A report examining California’s qualified medical evaluator system (QME) found that the recent update to the med-legal fee schedule (MLFS) helped increase the supply of QMEs, but the additional QMEs are not evenly distributed around the state. Researchers at Rand note that the additional supply of QMEs is in the state’s more densely populated areas, …
Assembly Appropriations held a bill in committee that would have created a registry system for temporary staffing agencies, including a requirement to prove they had valid workers’ comp coverage. Another bill to create a state registry for Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) was watered down to instead only establish a weak statutory definition of PEOs and …
California legislators returned to Sacramento this week for the final weeks of the session with a hefty load of bills to work through. The measures of interest to the workers’ comp community include bills to enhance anti-fraud efforts, hold carriers accountable for correcting problems, and enact staffing industry reforms. Already off the table were controversial …