AGOURA HILLS : Workers’ Compensation Office to Close in June

A state agency has decided to close a workers’ compensation office in Agoura Hills in June, forcing as many as 20,000 claims to be transferred to offices in either Van Nuys or Ventura.

Casey Young, administrative director of the state Division of Workers Compensation, made the decision as part of a plan to redirect dwindling resources. The agency has suggested redirecting the caseload to its Van Nuys office.

The announcement this month angered some east Ventura County attorneys, who have set up practices in neighboring Thousand Oaks and Westlake Village. They complained that the Van Nuys office is already overburdened.

“I think to properly service the public is to provide access,” said Rick Goldman, managing partner of the Thousand Oaks office of Tobin, Luck & Goldman. “That access seems to be limited if you’re going to put everything” into the Van Nuys office.

But Richard Stephens, a spokesman for the state agency, said the decision came after a two-year review.

“We’ve looked at our whole system,” he said. “We’re not saving money by closing this office. It’s more a redirecting of funds.”

The agency now has 27 offices, excluding a new one to be built in Riverside, Stephens said.

Stephens also said that the Agoura Hills staff of 14 would be reassigned, most likely either to the Ventura or Van Nuys district office.

A central function of the district offices is to resolve contested claims brought by employees, their employers and workers’ compensation insurance companies.

The Agoura Hills office, which serves the eastern part of Ventura County, should be, if anything, expanded and not closed, Goldman said. “Everything at the Agoura office is conducted in a judicious and efficient manner,” he said. “I hate to see businesses and opportunity leaving the Conejo Valley.”