Free Republic

Photo by Matthew RatajczakWEST PALM BEACH — Victor Leon is alone in the hospital most days. The 26-year-old was paralyzed nearly three years ago when he fell from the roof of a three-story building in Palm City while working for Jupiter-based Altec Roofing. Since then, Leon has been mired in a legal battle to get workers' compensation benefits or legal damages from Altec. Leon is an illegal immigrant. His status puts him at the crux of a legal debate over what rights, if any, illegal workers have after being injured on a job for which the American government says...

A state advisory board today recommended a 24.4 percent rate increase for workers' compensation insurance effective July 1, ignoring Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plea that a rate hike that big would overwhelm California businesses. The governing board of the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau approved the recommended rate increase during a morning meeting in San Francisco. WCIRB officials citing rising medical treatment costs -- not the number of accidents -- and other potential changes resulting from recent workers compensation appeals rulings. The bureau will now deliver its recommendations to state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who is free to accept or reject...

Former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez has taken a lucrative seat on the board of directors for a workers' compensation insurer after helping broker a 2004 deal that benefited the industry. The Los Angeles Democrat was termed out of the Assembly on Sunday, and on Monday, Zenith National Insurance Corp. appointed him to its board. Company filings say that directors are paid $90,000 per year, with an additional $40,000 paid for every committee on which they serve. Núñez said he did not know if his post was paid. "You have to ask Zenith," he said. Zenith did not return calls for...

Workers' compensation has been a bright spot for cost-conscious California businesses in recent years, with rates dropping 65 percent since 2003. Those days may be over. The Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau filed a proposal Friday for a 16 percent increase in the pure premium rate, an advisory figure used by insurance companies in determining how much to charge employers. Bureau officials said that most of the proposed increase comes from rising medical costs related to workers' comp claims. "Medical costs were declining for several years in a row due to the workers' comp reforms that went into effect in...

German Andrade for about 15 years lifted, loaded and carried out other physically demanding jobs as an illegal immigrant. Then came the bucket. It crashed from a skid loader onto Andrade's left foot at a landscaping work site. Fractures led to a lingering limp, which led to back problems and, said a judge, a 45 percent loss of earning capacity. At the time of the accident, Andrade, a husband and father in his early 30s, was earning $12 an hour. Andrade's case took a public twist when his Sarpy County employer balked at forking over injury-related workers' compensation - and...

While his accountant investigates what happened, DFL Senate candidate Al Franken will pay a $25,000 penalty he owes New York state for failing to carry workers' compensation insurance for nearly three years for people who worked for his personal corporation. "We decided to make the payment and the accountant can deal with the files," which promises to be a complicated and detailed process, said Jess McIntosh, a spokeswoman for the Franken campaign. If it turns out that the New York Workers' Compensation Board was in error, Franken's corporation -- Alan Franken Inc. -- would likely receive a rebate on the...

California's scandal-plagued government-run workers' compensation insurance company spent more than half a billion dollars over the last decade for outside marketing help that often provided "minimal services," a scathing new state audit shows. About half that money went to organizations with direct financial ties to two former board members of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, said the audit to be released today. The company sells workers' compensation insurance to 220,000 California employers. Some marketing groups were paid millions of dollars for merely sending members quarterly newsletters, providing few other services, the report said. The report paints a picture of an...

INDIANAPOLIS - An Indiana appeals court upheld a worker's compensation award Tuesday for an exotic dancer who was injured while performing on a pole at a strip club. The Indiana Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Angela Hobson and ordered the state Worker's Compensation Board to determine if she was entitled to double compensation. Hobson claimed she suffered neck pain and numbness after injuring herself while dancing at the Shangri-La West club in Fort Wayne on Dec. 20, 2001. She underwent surgery for a herniated disc in her cervical spine, according to court records. Hobson said she reported her...

KnoxNews http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/state/article/0,1406,KNS_348_5292769,00.html Foreign dependents have rights to workers' comp aid By Associated Press January 20, 2007 NASHVILLE - Foreign dependents of employees covered by the workers' compensation system are eligible to receive benefits if the worker is killed, the Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled. The case hinged on the 2002 death of Jaime Humberto Diaz Pedraza, a Mexican national who fell while working at a Nashville construction site. Pedraza's parents in Zempoala, Mexico, sought workers' compensation benefits, claiming that they were wholly supported by the money their son wired to them between 1999 and his death. Article truncated

Jose Hernandez was good with a machete. So he was the top choice when his boss needed someone to chop down young trees that were choking parts of Florida's Everglades. On one trip to the swamps, the workers flew in by helicopter and quickly cut a stand of sprouting trees. But when they took off again, something went wrong: The chopper lurched left, then plunged into murky water. A broken rotor blade slashed through Hernandez's left thigh. Doctors saved his life but couldn't save his leg. To pay for his costly medical care, Hernandez filed a workers' compensation claim, which...

Senator charges state's largest workers' comp provider with enlisting lobbyists to block probe A state lawmaker on Wednesday accused California's largest provider of workers' compensation insurance of attempting to obstruct efforts to fully audit the carrier, including how rates are set on premiums to pay injured workers. The accusations marked the latest skirmish in a battle over a proposed bill that would enable the state Legislature to audit the administrative and business practices of State Compensation Insurance Fund. State Fund is the largest workers' comp carrier in California with a roughly 38 percent market share. State Fund has spent an...

A Beverly Hills lawyer who represents injured workers before the state has told doctors that he and his colleagues will not refer clients their way unless they contribute at least $2,500 each to defeat Gov. Schwarzengger. The group representing the attorneys who specialize in workers compensation insurance cases immediately disavowed the lawyer's comments. Attorney Lawrence Stern, in a June 26 email, said that "we at CAAA (California Applicants Attorneys Association) have taken a pact not to support any (doctor) who has not contributed at least $2,500 to the elections…" The mail was sent to Marlena Garland, who markets the services...

Answering frequent complaints by contractors, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday signed legislation to crack down on workers' compensation insurance fraud plaguing the roofing industry. The measure, Assembly Bill 881 by Assemblyman Bill Emmerson, R-Redlands, calls for insurers to conduct annual audits of roofing company payrolls and empowers the Contractors State License Board to strip roofing licenses from contractors who fail to carry state-mandated workers' compensation insurance. Insurers and contractors are counting on the law to lower premiums for employers in the long run. Unscrupulous contractors will underreport the number of roofers on their payroll. Some won't carry coverage at all,...

More good news about the economy was released Monday. Manufacturing expanded nationwide and March showed an all-time high in consumer spending, indicating an awakening from an end-of-year slumber. In California, real estate has pushed a new- home construction boom that's increased jobs in that sector. But it's not the only economic indicator. Almost across the board, California industries say expansion and employment rests on the rollbacks in state workers' compensation rates, poised to dip even further. Drops have been driven by changes put in place two years ago. Those included an HMO-type physician network specifically addressing work injuries, uniform treatment...

AS A SMALL business consultant for the past 10 years, I saw the effect that high workers' compensation insurance had on small businesses, and I can tell you that the changes instituted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger two years ago most definitely have benefitted California. First, we have 575,000 new jobs in California while Schwarzenegger has been in office. Before he became governor, businesses were fleeing California for states with lower costs of doing business. Now, job-creation is vibrant in our state. Second, we have workers' comp cost-savings that are topping 40 percent. And another 16-percent cut in premiums is on...

SACRAMENTO - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday declared the sweeping workers' compensation changes he pushed through the Legislature two years ago a "huge success," but critics called them a disaster for injured workers. "Gov. Schwarzenegger broke his promise to protect injured workers," said Mark Hayes, president of Voters Injured At Work, a group that represents employees who suffer job-related injuries. "He has not fixed workers' compensation, as he claims, but has made things worse for Californians injured on the job." Schwarzenegger said when he took office in 2003 high workers' comp insurance rates were driving businesses out of the state...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's overhaul of the workers' compensation system has saved California employers billions of dollars over the last two years, but it also has led to a significant drop in benefits paid to disabled workers, according to a new report. The analysis from the state Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation found that the regulations adopted in 2004 have reduced the average cash award given to permanently disabled workers by 50 percent. Critics of the governor's reforms said the study's findings are proof the system does not treat injured workers fairly and that changes...

SACRAMENTO — California's overhaul of its troubled workers' compensation insurance system has saved employers at least $8.1 billion over the last three years, and the benefits to the economy are expected to continue, according to a study sent to the governor and Legislature on Friday. The report commissioned by the state Department of Industrial Relations found that workers' comp premiums paid by businesses and nonprofit organizations, which soared as much as 200% in the early part of the decade, have been almost cut in half since July 2003. What's more, rates in California, the highest in the nation in 2004,...

Omar Santos-Cruz came to the United States illegally from Mexico and went to work building houses in one of Alabama's fanciest neighborhoods before he was seriously injured in March of last year at age 17. A court has now ruled that Santos-Cruz is due workers compensation benefits and medical care for life despite being in the country illegally. The case is a possible legal precedent and a sign of things to come for builders who have come to rely on immigrant laborers in a booming housing market. But the Home Builders Association of Alabama cited the immigration status of Santos-Cruz...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - A state law requiring workers to provide their Social Security numbers when claiming compensation for on-the-job injuries is invalid because it violates federal privacy rights, the Florida Supreme Court decided Thursday. The seven justices unanimously upheld a 1st District Court of Appeal ruling that reinstated benefits for Ricardo Cagnoli, a South Florida man. A compensation claims judge had denied worker compensation benefits to Cagnoli because he had failed to include his Social Security number on his application as required by Florida law. The Federal Privacy Act, however, makes it illegal for any state, federal or local...

Undocumented workers who are hurt on the job are entitled to workers' compensation benefits, a state appeals court ruled. The 2nd District Court of Appeal made the finding in a case involving Torrance-based coffee roaster Farmer Bros. Co., which had tried to deny workers' comp benefits to an employee who was in the country illegally. The company argued that federal immigration laws superseded the state's workers' compensation system, which provides medical care and disability benefits to injured employees. The court disagreed, upholding an earlier decision against Farmer Bros. by the state Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. "California law has expressly declared...

Illegal immigrants injured on the job are entitled to workers' compensation benefits despite their legal status, a California state appeals court ruled. The 2nd District Court of Appeal ruled in a case involving Torrance-based coffee roaster Farmer Bros. Co., which had tried to deny workers' comp benefits to an employee who was in the country illegally. Farmers Bros. argued that federal immigration laws superseded the state's workers' comp system, which provides medical care and disability benefits to injured employees. The court disagreed, upholding an earlier decision against Farmer Bros. by the state Workers' Compensation Appeals Board. "California law has expressly...

The Second District Court of Appeals ruled late yesterday that illegal aliens who obtain employment dishonestly are still entitled to workers comp benefits. The ruling (Farmer Brothers Coffee v. WCAB, Rafael Ruiz) leaves employers, even those who do not knowingly hire illegal aliens, on the hook for the costs of their workers comp benefits both medical and indemnity. The case involves one Rafael Ruiz who was injured in 2002 while working for Farmer Brothers Coffee. During the deposition process Ruiz admitted -- unbeknownst to Farmers Brothers -- to using a false social security and green card to obtain employment. Based...

ESSEX, Md. -- State Delegate Patrick L. McDonough said yesterday he will propose legislation in the upcoming General Assembly to keep illegal aliens from receiving workers compensation. His decision follows a state Court of Appeals ruling Monday that upheld a lower court ruling that such compensation must be paid to illegal aliens. "The federal Immigration Act states you cannot aid or abet an illegal alien," said Mr. McDonough, a Baltimore County Republican. "It's a felony." The panel of seven judges ruled 6-1 that state law does not specify that an illegal alien who is an undocumented worker cannot receive compensation...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief spokesman on Wednesday said he unintentionally mischaracterized a payment an insurance company made to one of the governor's companies in 2004. Communications Director Rob Stutzman had said the payment from Zurich American to Schwarzenegger's Oak Productions represented a settlement of a dispute with electronics retailer Best Buy involving the unauthorized use of Schwarzenegger's image. But Stutzman on Wednesday said the payment - characterized on the governor's disclosure forms only as more than $10,000 - did not involve Best Buy. And he said a nondisclosure clause in the settlement prevents him from revealing the identity of the...

The Web log TV Newser, citing "multiple Fox News employees" as its source, is reporting that the company ordered the insecticide diazinon be sprayed in its roach-infested New York newsroom, exposing numerous employees to a chemical that is banned by the EPA for indoor use. One Fox employee wrote that she and her colleagues had decided to go public with the matter because "diazinon -- which disrupts the nervous and endocrine systems -- is highly suspect in one of the female producers here having a child with Down's Syndrome. That is a major liability that no company, however noble their...

State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi yesterday urged insurers to cut their workers' compensation rates by 18 percent July 1 to reflect the savings they have received from recent regulatory reforms. An insurance industry spokeswoman responded that double-digit reductions are likely, although not necessarily as deep as those Garamendi recommends. "Eighteen percent is not unreasonable," said Nicole Mahrt, public affairs director for the Western Region American Insurance Association. "It's higher than what some companies are able to do, but some companies are already planning cuts higher than that." Twice a year – on Jan. 1 and July 1 – the state...

A journalist friend of mine recently attended a banquet for hundreds of private detective agencies, and was fascinated to hear them, one-by-one, introduce themselves. The fascinating part: roughly one-quarter specialized in investigating Californians who claim to be injured on the job. The fact that California's private dick industry spends so much time probing claims of back strains, pain, and other injuries is testament to the troubles afflicting the most milked, most disastrous workers comp system in the United States. Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed sweeping reform, Senate Bill 899 by Republican State Sen. Charles Poochigian of Fresno, to cleanse...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Rebuffing pleas from groups representing injured workers, a Senate committee Wednesday approved Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's choice to head the Division of Workers' Compensation. The Rules Committee voted 3-2 to confirm the Republican governor's nomination of Andrea Hoch as the division's director despite testimony that regulations she drafted had hurt injured workers and didn't follow sweeping changes lawmakers made in workers' comp law last year. "Every single regulation that comes out is ... interpreted in the worst possible way for injured workers and the best way for employers," said David Schwartz, president of the California Applicants' Attorneys Association,...

The pressure intensified Monday on workers' compensation insurance carriers to step up and deliver significantly lower rates to employers and improved benefit payments to workers. The questions that loom over California's struggling workers' comp system came into sharp focus at a hearing Monday held by Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. The hearing was the start of a process to establish a benchmark for workers' comp rates during the second half of 2005. Garamendi expressed dismay that the workers' comp reforms of recent years have primarily served to reduce medical and disability benefit payments to workers without a meaningful cut in premiums...

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez threatened Tuesday to hold up budget talks unless Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration reworks rules to carry out last year's workers' compensation legislation. "Democrats would have never signed onto a deal that puts injured workers in harm's way," Núñez told more than 500 workers and labor union advocates during a rally on the east lawn of the Capitol. Marking the one-year anniversary of the enactment of the workers' compensation law, SB 899, Núñez joined a parade of Democratic lawmakers, union leaders and workers accusing Schwarzenegger of breaking a pledge to protect benefits and medical treatment for those...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - A year ago, when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed sweeping changes in the state's workers' compensation system, he promised the legislation would protect workers, save billions of dollars and root out fraud and waste. On Tuesday, unions and other groups representing injured workers will mark the first anniversary of those changes with rallies at the Capitol and Schwarzenegger's Los Angeles office. They'll be protesting, not celebrating. The changes, they say, have made things worse for employees who suffer job-related injuries, particularly in the way the administration has been implementing the new law. "The biggest issue we are going...

AUSTIN — This time, leading Republicans and Democrats agreed. They joined together at the Texas Capitol on Thursday to proclaim that they don't want an expansion of gambling. "Empty promises to get rich quick do nothing but bring devastation and addiction," said Tina Benkiser, chairwoman of the Texas Republican Party. "We're being asked to gamble away our children's future in the biggest con game of all times." Legislators looking to cut property taxes while giving more money to schools are considering more than 20 gambling proposals, including video slot machines at racetracks and Las Vegas-style casinos. Conservative Republicans and a...

After two years of major overhauls, California's workers' compensation system remains high on lawmakers' radar screens. More than three dozen workers' compensation bills have been introduced this session in the Assembly and Senate, touching on subjects such as insurance rate regulation and doctors' fees. More important, many bills are considered placeholders for future legislation in what could reignite debate over reforming the state-run program, observers say. "You would like to think (after) a major reform effort like SB 899 (last year) all would be calm. People are trying to protect or defend different areas. They don't go away," said Willie...

I hope it's dawning on the governor that truly big reform -- broad, complex changes in the way Sacramento spends our taxes -- has never been an easy sell. Californians prefer glitzy, one-hit wonders over policy. We're a Proposition 13, term-limits, "three strikes, you're out," gubernatorial-recall kind of state. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking a page from the playbook of former Gov. Ronald Reagan, who some 30 years ago tried to address rising taxes and legislative overspending with sweeping ballot reform. Reagan was popular and telegenic, like Schwarzenegger. But his complex plan, fought by entrenched interests, was defeated. He didn't give...

As one state department pursued a fraud case against a former prison correctional officer who it claimed had exaggerated his workplace injuries, the state's retirement system granted him a special pension for life. The Department of Corrections, Greg Nelson's one-time employer, says that at age 47 he claimed he hurt his back and neck in a workplace fall, only to find a new job operating heavy machinery at forest fires for as long as 14 hours at a stretch. But as investigators assembled their case against Nelson, the state's retirement system awarded him a medical pension, agreeing that his injuries...

Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata on Friday postponed a confirmation hearing for a state official tapped by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to carry out the overhaul of the California workers' compensation system. Influential labor and legal organizations are pressuring Democratic lawmakers to oust Andrea Hoch, the administrative director of the Division of Workers' Compensation. Her critics, including Perata and other Democratic legislators, assert that new formulas she crafted to determine permanent disability benefits would cut payments by up to 70 percent and reduce medical care for severely injured workers. Hoch declined comment Friday. A Schwarzenegger spokesman indicated the governor will...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - One of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointees is facing a tough confirmation fight because of regulations that opponents say go beyond the sweeping changes lawmakers adopted last year in the state's workers' compensation system. The Republican governor's nomination of Andrea Hoch as director of the Division of Workers' Compensation has drawn strong opposition from labor unions and groups that represent injured workers and workers' attorneys. And a lobbyist for one of Hoch's biggest supporters, the California Chamber of Commerce, says the appointment may be in trouble. "It's in question right now," said Charles Bacchi. "It's hanging in the...

As an owner/operator of a state-licensed board and care home for the elderly, I can tell you that contrary to what state insurance commissioner John Garamendi is telling the press, we have been hard-hit, once again, with double-digit increases in the cost of workers' compensation ["Rates for workers' comp are dropping," News, Jan. 19]. I have been in business more than 10 years and have never once had a claim. My rates have gone from under 6 percent to more than 23 percent of payroll. And since 2003, when Garamendi claims business owners have seen average cuts totaling 13.9 percent...

Sacramento -- Francis Pecoraro is trading a San Francisco Bay area medical practice that mainly serves injured workers for one in Wilmington, N.C., that he believes will be more doctor friendly. Pecoraro, who specializes in chronic pain cases, is among a number of California doctors who say they are fighting time-consuming, uphill battles to get necessary care for workers' compensation patients. As a result, some are limiting their workers' comp practices or dropping them altogether. Pecoraro said he decided to move to a state with a "less cumbersome" workers' comp system rather than spend "more time in the office generating...

California business owners saw the average annual premium for workers' compensation insurance drop between 13.9 percent and 16.6 percent in the last six months, according to records from the state Department of Insurance. These would be the first double-digit percentage rate cuts since deregulation in 1995, savings that arose out of legislative overhauls the last two sessions. "Rates are coming down. Right now, it appears medical cost inflation has been impacted by the reforms. Medical costs were one of the primary drivers pushing rates up," said Jack Hannan, a spokesman for the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California, an...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - California's workers' compensation costs are going down, but you wouldn't know it by looking at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposals. They include big increases in the state's own workers' comp costs. The Republican governor's budget predicts the state's cost of dealing with job-related injuries and illnesses among its employees will jump 30 percent over two fiscal years - despite much-touted changes Schwarznegger pushed through the Legislature last April. Jim Zelinski, a spokesman for the State Compensation Insurance Fund, a quasi-governmental agency that administers the state's workers' compensation program, said savings from the 2004 legislation and cost-cutting bills...

I'm not sure if this is the correct place to ask, but here goes. I have a friend that recently had a problem at work that landed her in the hospital. This should be covered under workman's comp. She works at a body shop at a car dealership. She had to go into the paint shop to check on a customers car and had a reaction to some fumes. Needless to say she won't be able to keep going into that area. She should be able to return to work on Monday, however,the doctor has put her on some kind...

Another of the California Highway Patrol's top administrators claims to have been injured at headquarters in Sacramento shortly before he headed out the door for retirement. Gary Townsend, one of the top three assistants of former Commissioner D.O. "Spike" Helmick, said in a workers' compensation claim that he injured his left foot and ankle as he was moving items out of his office Sept. 30. That was two weeks after the arrival of Helmick's successor, Mike Brown, who was replacing Townsend and other top administrators with his own assistants. Townsend said he put in his paperwork for retirement even before...

The Schwarzenegger administration on Thursday filed emergency regulations governing benefits for permanently disabled workers, setting terms for a revision to the state workers' compensation system that would take effect Jan. 1. Business and insurance groups praised the move but attorneys for injured workers said that it would cut payments to below 1983 levels. The new compensation schedule for workers with permanent partial disability -- those who can still work but whose injuries will impair their ability for the rest of their lives -- are intended to reduce costs and apply medical standards in deciding how serious a worker's injuries are....

SACRAMENTO (AP) - The Schwarzenegger administration on Thursday released a sweeping set of regulations aimed at revising how doctors evaluate permanent injuries to workers and how much compensation they are paid. The new regulations are a key element of the landmark reform of the state's compensation system approved by the Legislature last spring and aimed at cutting billions from the rates employers pay for insurance. The new proposal calls for the use of guidelines developed by the American Medical Association for measuring permanent disabilities. The administration also wants to employ a new formula for translating the degree of injury into...

California employers paid 38 percent more for workers' compensation insurance this year than those in the second most expensive state, Alaska, a new study shows. The nationwide survey said the gap between California and the rest of the country widened further in the past two years. In 2002, the state's employers, while still facing the highest rates in the nation, paid 16 percent more than the No. 2 state of Florida. On average, employers in January 2004 paid an average of $6.08 per $100 of payroll for premiums - $1.69 more than Alaska companies, according to a biennial survey of...

Rescuer in September 11 Attacks Denied Workers' Comp By Michael Gormley The Associated Press Thursday 16 December 2004 Albany, N.Y. - A World Trade Center worker who rushed from home on Sept. 11, 2001, to help rescue victims of the terrorist attack has been denied workers' compensation because he wasn't ordered to the scene by a boss, a court ruled Thursday. The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the state Workers' Compensation Board, and against Christopher Duff's workers' compensation claims for psychological injuries. Duff had won...

A judge who can't handle "deadlines, attorneys' and parties' harassment and conflicts (with) angry, hostile litigants" probably ought to find another line of work. But a state workers' compensation judge – actually, an arbiter of money and medical benefits in workers' comp cases – has filed a workers' comp claim for, according to The Sacramento Bee, "injuries to the heart and psyche." And hers is hardly the most glaring case of judges working the workers' comp system to their personal advantage. More's the pity that it's lawful. In fact, the cost of workers' comp as a percentage of payroll at...

A death threat threw workers' compensation Judge Ruby Theophile into such an emotional tailspin that she filed her very own workers' comp claim. Even one of her doctors remarked on the irony. The situation "seems unusual if not unique," psychiatrist Warren Jones wrote in his evaluation of the Pasadena judge. It was not unique - nor even unusual. California's 150 workers' compensation judges are six times more likely to file on-the-job injury cases than their judicial counterparts in state government, a Bee investigation has found. These gatekeepers of cash and medical benefits for injured workers have claimed injuries from rearranging...