California: SB 863’s $150 Lien Fee Is Not Unconstitutional

A California appellate court dismissed a claim filed by two workers who objected to the state’s workers’ compensation lien filing fee and non-assignment provisions of Labor Code §§ 4903.05, subd. (c) and 4903.8, finding that the workers had failed to demonstrate a beneficial interest in the dispute. The court indicated that while the workers had asserted generally that they had been denied access to medical care as a result of the legislation, they had come forward with no details. The court also denied a physician’s claim that the imposition of the $150 filing fee was unconstitutional as an impermissible “encumbrance” on the system. The court indicated the legislature had broad discretion in addressing issues that it felt required a remedy. The imposition of a recoverable filing fee was not an impermissible exercise of the Legislature’s power.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Chorn v. Workers’ Comp. Appeals Bd., 2016 Cal. App. LEXIS 232 (Cal. App. 2d Dist. Mar. 28, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 94.03.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.