You know the claims I’m talking about: the really old claims where the Injured Worker is representing himself/herself. Let’s call them “in pro per”s. Active in pro pers file one court paper after another, causing the insurer or self-insured employer to fund what seems like a never-ending stream of money to send a representative to the […]
Workers Compensation professionals have to know a lot: the California Labor Code, Title 8 regulations, state and federal rules governing health care entitlements. To make things even harder, the rules of this highly-governed road keep changing. Workers Compensation may be the most intricate, heavily regulated area of practice. These rules can constrain the parties’ ability […]
For President George W. Bush and Congress to get Medicare Part D drug coverage passed in 2003, they had to make significant concessions to big business, including the drug industry. One of the law’s provisions forbids the government from setting rules for negotiating better drug prices. The “noninterference” section says: In order to promote competition […]
If you like it, then you have to put a ring on it. In the mediation context, that means documenting your agreement. It’s a good idea to bring a partially completed Compromise & Release form to the mediation. The document can be completed and signed on the spot. This is efficient and forestalls buyer’s/seller’s remorse […]
Anyone shopping for a diamond quickly learns diamonds have four characteristics known as the four C’s: Like a diamond, mediation is incredibly valuable and has its own 4 C’s: Confidentiality Candor Creativity Collaboration Confidentiality Confidentiality is what makes mediation work. Anything said in mediation cannot later be used in a court. If the parties do […]
Contradictory dynamics involving life expectancy affect your large-exposure workers compensation claim evaluations. The industrial injury plus co-morbidities may decrease the injured worker’s life expectancy. But medical advances and heredity may mean your estimate of the injured worker’s life expectancy is too low. The Mortality Table Isn’t the Whole Story Parties typically use a mortality table to compute […]
Mediation remains unfamiliar to most California Workers Compensation professionals. To succeed, you– and your client– need to know what to expect.
HOW MANY PIECES ARE THERE TO THE SETTLEMENT PUZZLE? Answer: Probably more than you think. The more issues there are in a negotiation, the greater the opportunity for give and take across issues. This adds flexibility for parties to shape a settlement acceptable to all. Trading across issues in negotiation is called “logrolling.”Every case has its own […]
1) Mediation Works. In one study, 61 percent of workers compensation mediations resulted in total resolution of the disputed issues. 2) Mediation is fast- no waiting for a hearing date on an overcrowded court schedule. 3) Take as much time as you need- no rush to finish within a half-day window at the WCAB. 4) Mediation […]
Ethics are the moral principles that govern behavior. Every workers compensation professional has ethical rules to follow. For attorneys, these are spelled out in Codes of Professional Responsibility, statutes and sometimes case law. Despite some differences among the states, the basic principles governing settlement ethics are mostly the same Duty to Communicate to the Client […]