The Fifth District Court of Appeal says a lower court properly dismissed without leave to amend a lawsuit that a workers’ comp claimant filed against a qualified medical evaluator (QME) for allegedly mishandling her case. The dispute stems from the workers’ comp psych claim Samreen Riaz filed and the subsequent QME evaluation by Micah Hoffman …
The Third District Court of Appeal overturned two Cal/OSHA safety and health citations against a construction company after it found that the state failed to produce sufficient evidence that the firm’s employees were exposed to the organism that causes valley fever. However, the court upheld another citation that the firm required those employees to use …
The California Department of Insurance and the State Compensation Insurance Fund are waiting for an appeals court to determine if the carrier can resume its challenge of the Department’s handling of a settlement agreement. State Fund contends CDI is violating the agreement by barring it from defending its prior rate filings in new disputes over …
In a ruling that affects how all appealed workers’ comp cases are handled in California, the Second District Court of Appeal says the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board’s long-standing “grant-for-study” practice …
State and federal courts gave a boost to the legal fights gig economy companies are waging against California’s ABC test for differentiating between independent contractors and employees. A state court of appeal revived the industry-backed initiative to create an exception to keep app-based delivery drivers classified as independent contractors. Then, the Ninth Circuit Court of …
The Third District Court of Appeal agrees that a lower court’s summary judgment for the Roseville Moose Lodge in its defense of a negligence claim filed by a contractor’s employee was correct. The court found the Privette doctrine protected the lodge and held the worker failed to show that any of the recognized exceptions to …
In The Kroger Company et al., v. Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board and George Velasquez, an unpublished opinion, the Second Appellate District reviewed a workers’ compensation judge’s award of vocational rehabilitation benefits to an individual under Labor Code §139.5. The petitioner, The Kroger Company dba Ralphs Grocery Co. (Ralphs), maintained that the repeal of this section, …