Something’s Askew in California WCI Rating Bureau Data

• California legislators and policymakers aren’t getting an accurate view of the state of the workers’ compensation industry from data compiled by the Workers’ Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau, according to analysis by our sister publication Workers’ Comp Executive.
• Most legislators and policymakers who lack depth in insurance accounting and look at the report’s bottom line are unaware of the nuances and how the data is skewed. Because of what is both included and excluded from the Bureau’s calculations, the results do not present an accurate view of reality. Usually, it skews the industry’s results to look worse than they are.
• The Bureau is a private organization with quasi-governmental responsibility. It is financially supported exclusively by insurance carriers in whose interests it operates.
• According to Wednesday’s issue of Workers’ Comp Executive, the Bureau’s data fails to consider carriers’ returns on investments.
• It also excludes the impact of reinsurance, deductible credits, and adjustments for retrospective rating plans.
• Most importantly, in most years, the results are skewed by the intermingling of the private carrier results with those of the State Compensation Insurance Fund, which has underwriting results far worse than the rest of the industry.
• Payments made by the California Insurance Guarantee Association on behalf of failed carriers are included but with no offsetting premium. In other words, the Bureau only includes one side of the balance sheet: CIGA’s payments are excluded from the industry’s underwriting profit calculation but are included in the loss totals, further skewing results.
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More Minneapolis Cops Seek PSTD-related WC Settlements

• Minneapolis is moving toward finalizing another $1.4 million in workers’ compensation settlements with former police officers, the latest to have left their jobs since the murder of George Floyd.
• A city council committee approved the settlements with 10 former cops; the full council will vote next month on the agreements.
• In the first two years after Floyd’s May 2020 murder, the Minneapolis City Council approved more than $22 million in workers’ compensation settlements for 144 Minneapolis police officers.
• Only one settlement was rejected; that one was with an officer who’d been involved in an excessive force case.
• The City Council has been advised by its legal counsel that settling the cases with lump sum payouts is cheaper than going to trial.
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Alleged Bad Advice, Missed WC Opportunity, Leads to Lawyer Malpractice Claim 

• A Georgia deputy sheriff is claiming that lawyers in Morgan & Morgan’s Jacksonville, Florida office misled him and cost him the chance to file a workers’ compensation claim.
• Now, Brandon Walker of the McIntosh County Sheriff’s Office has filed a proposed class action against the firm.
• After suffering back injuries in a June 2022 incident while in his cruiser, Walker contacted a Morgan & Morgan lawyer.
• Walker claims the lawyer gave him bad information, including that he would have to quit his sheriff’s department job if wanted to file a workers’ compensation claim.
• The firm is challenging the case, which includes a proposed class of “hundreds, if not thousands” of former clients who were served while the firm allegedly operated in Georgia without the proper registration until April 2023.
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