Workers’ Compensation Backlog Draws Lawsuit

A class-action lawsuit was filed Thursday to end California’s 200,000-case backlog of workers’ compensation claims.

So great is the backlog that the state Department of Industrial Relations measures unprocessed claims in terms of linear feet. At last count in March, there were 384 feet of unprocessed claims, 152 of which were recorded in the Los Angeles office.

The suit said two other offices with large backlogs are Van Nuys, with 78 feet of unprocessed claims, and Santa Ana, with 66-plus feet.

“The workers’ compensation system in California, if it was a private business, would be in bankruptcy,” said Ralph Santiago Abascal, an attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance, which filed the suit in Sacramento Superior Court.

In recent years, the number of disputed claims to be adjudicated has overwhelmed California’s $5-billion-a-year worker’s compensation program, which provides medical care and financial support for injured workers. Critics charge that cases have been allowed to languish for up to a year, causing many injured workers serious financial problems.

Part of the system’s problems stem from its increasing complexity, state officials say. Originally, the system was designed to allow an injured worker to represent himself, but nowadays lawyers routinely handle workers’ claims.

The lawyers’ presence usually means a disputed claim cannot be settled without going before a workers’ compensation judge, state officials point out.

Several attempts have been made to reform the system but political squabbles have frustrated such efforts.

In retaliation for the backlog, the Democratic-controlled state Senate refused to confirm Barry Carmody, a former California Highway Patrol officer who was Gov. George Deukmejian’s choice to head the department’s division of industrial accidents.

Vetoes Cited

The suit charged that the backlog has been allowed to grow because Deukmejian has repeatedly vetoed $11.5 million in Legislature-approved funds to add new administrative judges to hear cases.

In 1968, Abascal said, 104 workers’ compensation judges handled 70,000 disputed claims. Today, with a 200,000-case backlog, there are only 121 judges.

Thus, he charged, it is nearly impossible to meet state requirements that cases be settled within 60 days of a hearing date.

Under state law, claimants must get a hearing within 30 days of requesting one. And a decision must be rendered 30 days after the hearing takes place. But too often, critics charge, it takes the better part of a year to obtain a hearing and another three months to get a decision.

“And that’s hard on people who have rent to pay and do other things,” he said.

Waitress’s Complaint

One such person is Violet Day, 42, a former waitress in Madera who injured her back in 1986 when she slipped on a wet spot in a walk-in refrigerator.

At a Van Nuys news conference called to announce the suit’s filing, she said she applied for a benefits hearing last August, but is still waiting for it to take place. Since the accident, she said, she had to get by on a $5,000 advance from an insurance carrier and $3,000 in state disability payments.

“I had to sell my car and my landlord isn’t very happy with me,” she said. “I hope to get back on my feet after the hearing.”

The suit seeks to force state Controller Gray Davis to set aside $11.5 million to hire 52 new administrative judges and other support personnel to help reduce the backlog.

It also seeks a court order forcing the state to comply with the deadlines for scheduling hearings and rendering decisions.

Talks in Progress

Reached in Sacramento, Ronald Rinaldi, head of the Department of Industrial Relations, which oversees the industrial accidents division, said the lawsuit will not have any effect on current discussions aimed at trying to reform the system.

He said the governor’s staff, employer and insurance interests and organized labor have been meeting in an attempt to reach a consensus on how to reduce the spiraling costs of workers’ compensation.

“Runaway costs are creating a cloud over the vitality (of the program),” he said. “Adding more judges doesn’t fix anything.”