Practice Long and Prosper: a Manifesto for the Workers' Comp Community
| Publication year | 2022 |
| Author | JULIUS YOUNG, ESQ. |
JULIUS YOUNG, ESQ.
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
The California workers' compensation community has been undergoing a major transition. The Covid pandemic altered many aspects of practicing workers' comp law. A significant number of attorneys now work either partly or fully remotely. With most depositions online and conferences held telephonically, clients and opposing counsel interact in person less often. Attorneys in the same firm may be working remotely and rarely interacting with each other. Some applicant and defense attorneys have noted they are encountering more opposing attorneys from far ends of the state. This means that applicant and defense counsel are less likely than before the pandemic to know each other well. All of these factors affect the culture of practicing workers' comp law.
Further, there has been a slow but steady generational shift as boomer-era attorneys and judges retire from the system, and mentoring less experienced attorneys has become more challenging. There's less likelihood of meeting fellow firm members at the office water cooler or having lunch together. Attorneys are not bumping into colleagues at the WCAB since they are seldom there.
These cultural changes in the workers' comp field aren't limited to lawyers. Insurers and third party administrators (TPAs) are concerned about claims personnel turnover and trouble attracting new talent to the field.
Musing on all of these changes has caused me to reconsider what advice I'd give attorneys. Although it may be particularly useful to newer attorneys, what follows is my manifesto of principles for comp lawyers.
Who do you want as a mentor? Bouncing questions and ideas back and forth with colleagues can be vital to your growth as an attorney, so identify people you respect in the profession and seek them out as mentors. This may be challenging, but just as important, for attorneys who work remotely and are not having day-to-day conversations with colleagues.
California workers' comp covers injuries and illnesses that a lot of other states don't cover. California pays more benefits than a number of states. A corps of dedicated workers' comp judges staffs the WCAB district offices.
You have chosen an interesting niche of legal practice, at the intersection of law and medicine. Applicant attorneys also have a few social worker duties on their plates. Whether you are an applicant attorney helping deliver benefits or a defense attorney rooting out the occasional fraud case, your work has value.
According to the California Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau (WCIRB), in 2021 in California it cost 48 cents to deliver $1.00 of benefits. In comparison, Medicare costs 2 cents to deliver $1.00 of benefits, private group health costs 18 cents to deliver $1.00 of benefits, and the median U.S. state cost was 25 cents
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to deliver $1.00 of benefits. California's workers' comp system remains one of the most expensive in the country. WCIRB and the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation (CHSWC) calculations for 2020 revealed that of the workers' comp pie, 30.5 percent of paid costs were indemnity, 35 percent were medical and 34.5 percent were expenses. In other words, expenses of the system exceeded the indemnity payout and were equivalent to the medical payout—not a pretty picture. Be humble about your role in the system.
Inappropriate behavior in the comp system can take many forms. On the defense side, such behavior may include:
- Treating injured workers with a lack of empathy
- Being tone deaf to a worker's situation
- Ignoring rules for service of medicals on QMEs and applicant counsel
- Focusing on billing rather than the practicalities of a claim
On the applicant-side you may encounter:
- Gathering referrals through shady sign-up services
- In order to evade MPNs and UR rules, cultivating a lien-based treatment strategy executed by filing claims that will be denied
- Throwing everything against the wall to see what sticks
- Being...
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