News
From our offices in Monterey, Salinas, Santa Cruz, and Watsonville, California, Rucka, O'Boyle, Lombardo & McKenna represents our clients in a wide variety of workers' compensation, Social Security Disability, and personal injury matters. To help our clients stay up-to-date on important legal issues and happenings within the firm, we have published the following newsletters:
- September 2004 - Volume 1, Issue 1
- In April, 2004, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger passed significant changes to California's workers' compensation law that unfortunately has had a negative impact on injured workers' rights. This includes forcing you to choose a company-selected doctor, shortening the length of certain disability benefits, and limiting chiropractic and physical therapy visits to 24, even where the injury required surgery.
- September 2004 - Spanish
- October 2004 - Volume 1, Issue 2
- In an important Monterey County court decision, an injured worker was awarded $300,000 in a personal injury lawsuit based on Labor Code §4558, which permits suing an employer for damages when the injury is caused by the removal of a guard from a power press machine. This section is one of the few that allows injured workers to seek civil recovery through a lawsuit; normally, the only available recovery for an injured worker is through workers' compensation benefits.
- February 2005 - Volume 2, Issue 1
- Drug manufacturer Merck recalled popular arthritis drug Vioxx after information that people taking the drug were twice as likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke, or other cardiovascular injury. We also announced the creation of Voters Injured at Work.org, a non-profit political organization of injured workers and their families established for the purpose of protecting and enforcing California's constitutional guarantee of a fair and adequate system of compensating workers and their dependents for injury or disability from a work injury.
- September 2005 - Volume 2, Issue 2
- Changes to California workers' compensation law passed in 2004 appear to have had a significant negative impact on injured workers' benefits. The Workers’ Compensation Insurers Rating Bureau (WCIRB) estimates workers have seen as much as a 76% cut in their benefits.
- September 2006 - Volume 3, Issue 1
- Rucka, O'Boyle, Lombardo & McKenna supports and applauds political candidates who stand up and fight for injured workers.
- October 2007 - Volume 4, Issue 1
- An investigation by the California Department of Insurance (CDI) Fraud Division revealed that workers' compensation fraud by employers is still an important problem. This includes discouraging employees from filing a claim, telling employees to tell their doctor the injury occurred at home, and paying them cash for private health insurance co-payments.
- April 2009 - Volume 5, Issue 1
- With recent changes to California's workers' compensation law, many injured workers may be tempted to fail to report a workplace injury to their supervisors, instead seeking medical treatment using other health coverage. We explain how workers' compensation coverage is still an injured employee's best available coverage.
- September 2009 - Volume 5, Issue 2
- In a personal injury case, we achieved a successful result for our client, a truck driver who sustained serious injuries when the defendant's forklift operator negligently backed out of a truck bay, crushing our client between two forklifts. Our client sustained serious injuries that required surgery.
- April 2010 - Volume 6, Issue 1
- Under the California Labor Code, the state's permanent disability system was supposed to have been updated by January 1, 2010. Recently, Governor Schwarzenegger announced that he would be ignoring this requirement and refusing to change the system. Studies show that changes made under his administration have cut permanent disability benefits by as much as 70%.
