LexisNexis Calif. Workers' Comp eNewsletter: Depositions, Anyone?

Vol 2, Issue 35

Find Solutions & Strategies August 29, 2011

Depositions, Anyone?

A helpful primer on depositions in workers' compensation cases

In This Issue

* DEPOSITIONS PRIMER

* WORKERS COMP CENTENNIAL

* RECENT PANEL DECISION: Psychiatric treatment

* BLOG ROUND UP: Fraud, CCC's, Lien Claims, TD Payments

* JOB POSTING: Defense attorney

* NEWS HEADLINES: Sup. Ct. rejects Almaraz petition

* CITEABILITY OF PANEL DECISIONS

* PANEL DECISIONS REPORTER

* eNEWSLETTER ARCHIVES

A Note From the Editor

Dear WC Professionals:

Thank you to Robert G. Rassp, Esq. for his lessons on depositions. His primer will surely come in handy.

One hundred years ago, on Sept. 1, 1911, California's first workers' compensation law, known as the Roseberry Act, went into effect. Two years later a compulsory workers' compensation law (the Boynton Act) was enacted. Thanks to David Bacon for showing us the importance of unions and workers' compensation over the years.

Sincerely,

Robin E. Kobayashi, J.D.

LexisNexis Editorial & Content Development

[email protected]

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depositions

Robert Rassp gray Depositions, Anyone? by Robert G. Rassp, Esq. Recently, a defense attorney took the deposition of an Applicant who had filed two claims - an admitted specific injury and a denied cumulative trauma case. The deposition itself went smoothly (no one overtly lied about anything) but at the end of the deposition, the defense attorney (who was from a large, well established law firm) asked the applicant's attorney:

"Will you stipulate to relieve the court reporter of her obligations under CCP section 2025(q) and (s), that the deposition transcript can be signed under penalty of perjury, that the Applicant will review the transcript within 30 days of your receipt of it and defendants will be notified within 45 days of the date the transcript is received of any changes the Applicant made, otherwise, a certified unsigned copy of the transcript can be used for any purpose?"

Now, this got us thinking. When was the last time this defense attorney (or for that matter all of us) referred to the pertinent sections of the California Code of Civil Procedure that govern depositions? Hint: CCP sections 2025(q) and (s) were repealed years ago and a whole new series of sections were substituted in. Read more.

Lexis.com subscribers can link to the cases, statutes, etc. cited in this article.

workers' comp centennial

Workers' Compensation Centennial 1911-2011- California: Justice, Equality and a Decent Life, by David Bacon.

In the hundred and fifty year history of workers in the San Francisco Bay Area, the watershed event was one that happened 70 years ago - the San Francisco general strike. That year sailors, longshoremen and other maritime workers shut down all the ports on the west coast, trying to form a union and end favoritism, low wages, and grueling 10- and 12-hour days. Shipowners deployed tanks and guns on the waterfront, and tried to break the strike.

At the peak of this bitter labor war, police fired into crowds of strikers, killing two union activists. Then workers shut down the entire city in a general strike, and for four days nothing moved in San Francisco. The strike gave workers a sense of power described in a verse in the union song Solidarity Forever: "Without our brain and muscle, not a single wheel can turn."

The strike marked the end of a period in which, for seventy years, the efforts of workers to form unions were met with violence and firings. By the end of the 1930s, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union was one of the strongest in the nation, workers had a hiring hall instead of a humiliating shapeup in which they had to beg for jobs, and workers on both sides of the bay were busy building other unions, as well as political organizations that eventually elected mayors and sent pro-worker candidates to Congress. The strike marked the beginning of our modern labor movement. Read more.

SNEAK PREVIEW: RECENT PANEL DECISION

NOTE:This free eNewsletter reports only a handful of panel decisions each month. If you want notification of all 50 to 65 noteworthy panel decisions added each month to the Lexis database, please consider purchasing our new panel decisions reporter. Panel decisions are citeable, but not binding precedent.

Medical Treatment; Treatment of Non-industrial Psychiatric Condition. WCAB affirmed WCJ's finding that defendant was liable to applicant/team leader for psychiatric treatment under Labor Code � 4600, even though there was no industrial psychiatric injury found under predominant cause standard in Labor Code � 3208.3, when psychiatric treatment was necessary to treat effects of applicant's 1/26/2009 industrial back injury as reflected in AME's report recommending that applicant's intractable post-surgical low back and left leg pain should be treated not only with pharmacological pain management, but also with psychological pain management. See Hammerly panel decision.

Reminder: Practitioners should check the subsequent history of a panel decision before citing to it.

blogs at the lexisnexis workers' comp law community

Fraud Sign

Workers' Comp Fraud Blotter - Embezzled County Workers' Compensation Funds Used For Playboy Mansion Visit to Meet Hugh Hefner, by LexisNexis Workers' Compensation Law Community Staff. Read it.

Cal. Comp. Cases August Advanced Postings (8/25/2011). Here's the fourth batch of advanced postings for the August 2011 issue. Lexis.com subscribers can link to the complete headnotes and summaries. Read it.

Proposed Changes in the P&P Manual - Dealing With Lien Claims, by Judge Colleen Casey. Read it.

CWCI CWCI Finds Average TD Payments In California Workers' Comp Are Up as TD Duration Increases, by California Workers' Compensation Institute. Read it.

Boxing AMA Guides A Lesson in Pugilism: The Battle of the AMA Guides in Delaware, by Cassandra Roberts, Esq. What happens when different results are arrived at under the AMA Guides Fifth Ed. and the AMA Guides Sixth Ed.? Read it.

job posting

WC Defense Associate. Brea office of Goldman, Magdalin & Krikes, LLP seeks attorney with minimum 5 years workers' comp defense experience, competitive salary & benefits. Submit in Word format cover letter, resume, salary history/requirements to [email protected].

NEWS HEADLINES

Workers' Comp Executive:

FLASH: Workers' Comp Rates: Secret Political Deal, Cover-up, Clouding the Truth?

FLASH: Supreme Court Rejects Almaraz Petition.

Other News:

CA: WCIRB Submits 1/1/2012 Pure Premium Rate Filing.

CA: WCIRB Report on First Quarter 2011 Insurer Results Released.

CA: WCIRB Announces Public Hearing Date Set for WCIRB Filing.

CA: Calif Workers Comp Rates Predicted to Remain Flat in 2012.

CA: Supreme Court Denies Petition for Review in Almaraz Case.

CA: Supreme Court Rules Injured Worker Unable to Sue Airline That Hired Contractor.

CA: Medical-Legal Company's Data Spill of 300,000 Health Records.

CA: CWCI Finds Average TD Payments in Calif WC Are Up as TD Duration Increases.

CA: Editorial Supports Legislative Tweaks to Calif Workers Comp System.

CA: Petition for Rehearing Filed in Supreme Court's COLA Decision.

CA: Cal Chamber Opposes Bill to Extend Temporary Disability Period.

MSP: Stricker Judge Refuses Motion to Reconsider Order Dismissing Medicare Claims Against Liability Insurers.

7th Circuit Denies Liberty Mutual Permission to Appeal AIG's $450M Settlement of Workers Comp Premiums Case.

NFL, New Orleans Saints Sue Former Players for Seeking Workers Comp Benefits in California.

Winners Announced for Workers Comp Risk Management Award.

AIC Holdings Appoints Robert G. Purdy President and CEO of AIC Underwriters.

NRLB Releases Investigation Report on 14 Cases Involving Employee Use of Social Media.

Eastern Insurance Holdings Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend.

Medicare Secondary Payer Charitable Foundation Announces Free Professional Medicare Set-Aside Administration for Qualified Beneficiaries.

citeability of panel decisions

Practitioners should proceed with caution when citing to a panel decision that hasn't been designated as a "significant panel decision" by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, and should also verify the subsequent history of the panel decision. WCAB panel decisions are citeable authority, particularly on issues of contemporaneous administrative construction of statutory language [see Griffith v. WCAB (1989) 209 Cal. App. 3d 1260, 1264, fn. 2, 54 Cal. Comp. Cases 145]. However, WCAB panel decisions are not binding precedent, as are en banc decisions, on all other Appeals Board panels and workers' compensation judges [see Gee v. Workers' Comp. Appeals Bd. (2002) 96 Cal. App. 4th 1418, 1425 fn. 6, 67 Cal. Comp. Cases 236]. While WCAB panel decisions are not binding, the WCAB will consider these decisions to the extent that it finds their reasoning persuasive [see Guitron v. Santa Fe Extruders (2011) 76 Cal. Comp. Cases 228, fn. 7 (Appeals Board En Banc Opinion)].

Lexis.com subscribers can link to the cases cited above.

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