California Workers Compensation Claim Nuisance Value

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The Nuisance Value of a California Workers Compensation Claim

When it comes to lawsuits, there is always an amount of money the defendant is willing to give to the plaintiff no matter how poor the plaintiff’s case is against the defendant just to make the case go away. The rationale for paying the plaintiff to go away comes from the fact that it can be cheaper to pay them off than litigating the case. Nuisance value can only be analyzed on a case by case basis because each case is unique.

Nevertheless, California Workers Compensation Claim Nuisance Value For Workers Compensation Lawyers is generally between $5,000.00 and $10,000.00 dollars. In other words, no matter how poor a claim is, the insurance companies are generally willing to settle a claim for an amount within that range, at least towards the beginning of the case. 3

To a personal injury lawyer who does not practice workers compensation law, such nuisance amounts may seem quite high, and I like to speculate as to why I am often able to achieve $10,000.00+ settlements on cases that have an extremely low probability of prevailing at trial or are maybe not worth that much money even if I win. In my opinion, California Workers Compensation Claim Nuisance Value For California Workers Compensation Lawyers is very high for one main reason. The cost of bringing a Workers Compensation claim in California is extremely low for the worker and his attorney.

California Workers Compensation Claim Nuisance Value For California Workers Compensation Lawyers

First, there are no filing fees. Second, there is no need to personally serve the defendant. Third, subpoena costs are paid for by the insurance company. Fourth, the California Workers Compensation Lawyer is paid a high amount of money in the form of 5710 Fees just for the defendant to take the injured worker’s deposition. Fifth, medical treatment and the money portion of the Workers Compensation claim are bifurcated, meaning medical providers bill the insurance company directly instead of billing the injured worker. This

means it is almost impossible for the injured worker to become personally liable for medical treatments. Sixth, all experts are paid for by the insurance company (this doesn’t preclude the injured worker from getting a second expert to rebut the expert). Seventh, cumulative trauma injuries require expert medical evidence meaning that the defendant generally cannot knock a case out early with a priority conference that leads to a short bifurcated trial just on whether the injury is work related, not the nature and extant of the injury itself. For those civil attorneys out there, the priority trial is akin to a motion for summary judgment.

For all these reasons, and there are certainly more that I may have missed here, nuisance value ranges around $10,000.00, and some insurance companies in my experience have paid up to $20,000.00 just to make a case go away. The high cost for the insurance company to administer a Workers Compensation claim and the low costs for the worker to pursue it pushing the nuisance value up. It also opens the door to large amounts of fraudulent and retaliatory claims made by injured workers against employers in California. I will reserve the topic of fraudulent and retaliatory claims for another day.

For more information on Workers Compensation law or to speak to a Workers Compensation lawyer, visit our website at NapolinLaw.com or call us at 844-984-4878.