Sign up for this free eNewsletter by sending your full name and email address, along with your request for the Calif. edition, to:

 robin.e.kobayashi@lexisnexis.com

Fatal Shooting at Dental Office Was Not Sufficiently Connected to Employment, by Thomas A. Robinson. With the stalled economy, high unemployment (and even higher levels of underemployment), record budget deficits at both the federal and state levels, under-water mortgages, the Greek debt crisis, and the cost of gasoline at the pumps, those in charge of our public policy search diligently for hints of good news. One bright spot appears to be a significant reduction in recent years in the rate of violent crime. Indeed, over the past 20 years, the country's murder rate has fallen by almost one-half-from 9.8 to 5.5 per 100,000 population. That still means some 17,000 persons were murdered within our borders last year, but hey, a reduction's a reduction. One would hope this reduction in violent crime would be echoed within the workplace and, indeed, it has been. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), there were 1,080 homicides at work in 1994. By 2009, the number had fallen to 542. One of those 542, unfortunately, was Mariela Paredes, a dental office employee in Simi Valley, California. > Read more

Susan V. Hamilton, a Deputy Commissioner of the California Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB), retired at the end of 2011. Deputy Commissioner Hamilton had a long, productive and influential career in public service in many roles with the California Department of Industrial Relations, the state agency charged with protecting the rights of California workers. > Read more

Medical Treatment; Utilization Review. WCAB affirmed WCJ's finding that applicant with 5/19/2003 industrial injuries to his left upper extremity, left foot, psyche, and in forms of erectile dysfunction and sleep disorder was entitled to medication Trazamine as prescribed by his treating physician, when WCAB found that (1) defendant's 3/25/2009 UR denial was legally invalid, because UR doctor initially found that requested treatment with Trazamine was reasonable and necessary and changed his opinion only after he was asked to review additional information, which is not allowed under LC 4610, (2) since defendant's UR denial was invalid, applicant was not required to timely object to UR pursuant to procedure in LC 4062(a), and (3) all of defendant's UR denials issued subsequent to 3/25/2009 were also invalid because they were predicated on legally invalid denial of 3/25/2009. See Ortega panel decision.