It May Take a Real Judge to Settle This Matter : Courts: Workers’ compensation judges are now officially ‘referees.’ The title change has sparked an uproar and a move to overturn it.

You can dump huge caseloads on judges, force them to work in cramped offices and pay them far less than many of the lawyers who appear in their courts.

But there’s one thing--maybe--that you can’t do: take away their titles.

That, at least, appears to be the case, so far, in California’s workers’ compensation courts.

The egos of the state’s roughly 180 workers’ compensation judges were battered last summer when the Legislature, in one small part of a big reform package, voted to downgrade their title to “referee.” Although there has been some quibbling about when and how the name change should take effect, most observers agree the provision was supposed to kick in Monday with the start of the new year.

But largely because of a blend of pride, pragmatism and logistics, nothing much is happening on the title change front--even though other parts of the reform package are being implemented.

The provision--which has no impact on the jurists’ job duties or pay--was inserted into the reform package by Sen. Bill Leonard (R-Upland). He attributed it at the time, among other things, to his frustration with the performance of the judges, some of whom are being investigated for allegedly accepting improper gifts and speaking fees.

The move triggered an uproar among the judges, whose title has been one of their few perks. Some privately accuse Leonard of acting purely out of spite.

“It was a giant slap in the face,” said Samuel L. Sosna Jr., president of the Conference of California Workers’ Compensation Judges, who also presides over the workers’ compensation court in Pasadena.

Sosna noted the vast economic impact and heavy demands of the job, which involves resolving sometimes-costly disputes among insurers, employers and workers over on-the-job injury claims.

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“There’s a certain authority and aura about the office,” he said. “The office (because of the title change) has been made less attractive, and I’m sure we’ll get less attractive candidates.”

Still, almost no one seems to be calling the jurists “referees” yet.

Lawyers, loath to offend the people who decide their cases, have kept addressing them as judges.

And officials with the California Division of Workers’ Compensation, apparently sympathetic to the jurists’ cause, haven’t hurried to carry out the title change. Among other things, they haven’t issued the judges-referees new business cards or new nameplates for their offices.

“Frankly, this part of the workers’ compensation reform is not the highest priority,” said Richard Stevens, a spokesman for the division. Officials “are focusing on the substantive, cost-saving provisions.”

Stevens also noted that hurrying to complete the title switch could be a waste of effort because the judges-referees are already lobbying the Legislature to get their old titles back.