California Bar Journal
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE STATE BAR OF CALIFORNIA - JUNE 2000
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IMPORTANT NOTICE: This article is provided solely for research and archival purposes. MCLE self-study credit is no longer available. Even if you follow the instructions and submit payment you will not be granted MCLE self-study credit. Please note that low-cost MCLE is provided by the California Lawyers Association, pursuant to Business and Professions Code section 6056.

MCLE SELF-STUDY

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Self-Assessment Test
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Answer the following questions after reading the MCLE article on workers' compensation. Use the answer form provided to send the test, along with a $20 processing fee, to the State Bar. Please allow at least eight weeks for MCLE certificates to reach you in the mail.

1. Generally, workers’ compensation is the “exclusive remedy” for employees who suffer work-related injury or illness.

2. To establish a claim for workers’ compensation, the employer’s fault must be established as a threshold element.

3. Counties, cities and other political subdivisions need not be insured for workers’ compensation liability or secure a certificate of consent to self-insure from the Department of Industrial Relations.

4. A person injured while volunteering services in a law office without pay or benefits would be entitled to collect workers’ compensation benefits.

5. An employee who is injured while participating in a weekend walk to benefit cancer victims will be entitled to collect workers’ compensation benefits.

6. An employee with an accepted or compensable workers’ compensation claim will not be able to obtain temporary disability payments if he returns full-time to a light duty job provided by the employer.

7. Permanent disability payments are not payable if there is partial residual disability resulting from the work-related injury which would create a handicap in the open labor market, but the employer provides a modified full-time job.

8. An employee with an accepted work-related injury who is unable to continue working in the usual and customary occupation engaged in at the time of injury is entitled to vocational rehabilitation services, which may include counseling fees, training costs and a weekly maintenance allowance up to a maximum of $16,000.

9. An employee may not select a treating physician in advance of a work-related injury, but once an injury occurs, the employee maintains total control of selecting the treating physician.

10. There are deductibles the employee must pay for medical treatment and ceilings on treatment costs, beyond which the employee’s medical plan must assume payment.

11. An employer has complied with the law if its supervisor immediately mails a claim form and notice of potential eligibility to an employee calling to report feeling overwhelmed and unable to work because of work pressures.

12. An employee’s claim will be presumed compensable, even if the injury occurred at home, if the employer fails to deny liability within 90 days after filing of the employee claim form with the employer.

13. An employer may persuade an employee pursuing a claim without counsel to resolve medical disputes by using an Agreed Medical Examiner.

14. To commence a proceeding before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB), an Application for Adjudication of Claim must be filed.

15. An employer who remembers five days before trial that it is in possession of their company’s pre-employment medical questionnaire, showing the employee disclosed that he obtained treatment of his back prior to employment, and attempts to have the trial continued for further discovery and development of the medical record will likely have the request denied, and the records will likely be deemed inadmissible.

16. At trials or hearings before the WCAB, the parties are not bound by the rules of evidence.

17. The burden of proof is always on the employee pursuing his or her claim for benefits.

18. A party aggrieved by a final order, decision or award made by the WCAB must file a Petition for Reconsideration within 30 days from the date of service of the decision.

19. One of the bases which may support a Petition for Reconsidera-tion is that the employee was represented by ineffective counsel during trial.

20. Following denial of a Petition for Reconsideration, a petition for trial de novo must be filed with the local Superior Court to preserve the right of appeal.

CERTIFICATION

This activity has been approved for Minimum Continuing Legal Education credit by the State Bar of California in the amount of 1 hour.

The State Bar of California certifies that this activity conforms to the standards for approved education activities prescribed by the rules and regulations of the State Bar of California governing minimum continuing legal education.