Practices
Related Practices
Horvitz & Levy LLP successfully represented a group of employers and workers’ compensation insurers in fending off superior court class actions to recover interest on attorney’s fees in workers’ compensation proceedings. Plaintiffs, attorneys who represented injured workers before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB), alleged that defendant employers and insurers owed them and putative class members interest on attorney fee awards issued by the WCAB over a period of years. Plaintiffs claimed they should be allowed to recover any interest owed on attorney fee awards through an action in the superior court because Labor Code section 5800 provides for WCAB awards to “carry interest at the same rate as judgments in civil actions.”
Although none of the awards expressly provided for interest, plaintiffs claimed that WCAB awards, like superior court judgments, automatically bear interest by operation of law, whether or not the award provides for interest. In a published opinion, the California Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Seven, disagreed. The Court of Appeal upheld the trial court’s judgment that, because the interest plaintiffs seek is “compensation” within the exclusive remedial scheme of workers compensation, a claim for interest that is not included within the express terms of a WCAB award is beyond the jurisdiction of the superior court. The Court of Appeal concluded that, while the plaintiffs have standing to seek an award of interest, and may well be entitled to interest, the plaintiffs’ exclusive remedy is through the workers compensation system, subject to review by the appellate courts.