A new law requires employers to notify employees of their right to attorney representation if they are injured on the job. Employers must add this to the employee notifications that are already required. The bill also requires the notifications to explain how attorney fees are paid in the workers’ comp system. Governor Gavin Newsom signed …
The Legislature’s response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s May Revise would restore funding to some programs slated for cuts, including programs overseen by the Department of Industrial Relations, but it rejects a budget trailer bill to give the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board some breathing room. The proposal passed by the Assembly Budget Committee maintains funding for …
The California Legislature is in the second half of its 2024 session with active bills advancing to the second house for committee review. The active workers’ comp bills include provisions to expand temporary disability and 4850 benefits, establish a heat-illness presumption for farmworkers, and order the Contractors State Licensing Board to create a process to …
The Senate and Assembly Appropriation committees reviewed over a thousand bills last week in an up-or-down vote. Five workers’ comp bills on the suspense file were approved, albeit with amendments to a couple. A private sector presumption for heat-related illnesses among farmworkers is still in play. SB 1299 by Sen. Dave Cortese (D-Silicon Valley) cleared …
The Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee passed two bills targeting contractors and the Contractors State Licensing Board. The measures would extend the sunset date for the CSLB as a state entity and would give contractors who do not have employees two more years before they must obtain workers’ comp insurance. The bills would …
California legislators faced an early hurdle to keep their 2024 bills alive and viable. Legislative rules required fiscal bills to clear the policy committees in their house of origin by last Friday. Nonfiscal bills have until this Friday to reach the floor of their house of origin. Which workers’ comp bills made it? Here is …
Former Assemblyman Ricardo Lara was back in the Building in his position as California’s Insurance Commissioner to advocate for a pay raise for the fraud investigators employed by the California Department of Insurance. The Commissioner is sponsoring AB 2872 to give the sworn peace officers pay parity with their counterparts at the state’s Department of …
The Assembly Insurance Committee passed one bill allowing compromise and release (C&R) settlements to be signed electronically and one changing notification requirements for injured employees. The latter bill would require workplace posters to include information about employees’ rights to consult an attorney if injured at work. Assemblyman Liz Ortega (D-Hayward) says she is carrying AB …