Terrorism Claims: A 60-Second Seminar in Workers’ Compensation Claims Handling

We suspect that many claim professionals have wondered what workers’ compensation law has to say as to employees injured as a result of an act of terrorism. Sadly, injury by that scenario is not that far-fetched. Case in point, the terrorist attack which occurred on December 2, 2015, in San Bernardino resulting in the death of 14 workers with scores more injured. Since then, our compensation laws have been amended to specifically address terrorism claims. The purpose of today’s blog is to review the directives in workers’ compensation law involving industrial claims arising from acts of terrorism.

In 2017, AB 44 was enacted, effective 1/1/18, adding § 4600.05 to our Labor Code to address terrorism claims. The provisions of LC § 4600.05 activate whenever the Governor declares a state of emergency in connection with an act of domestic terrorism. Once such a declaration is made claims administrators must:

1. Provide notice within three days advising all employees seeking compensation benefits due to an act of domestic terrorism to the availability of medical benefit assistance.
2. Provide a nurse case manager to assist both the injured worker and the medical provider in obtaining medical treatment.
3. Provide medical care for physical injury, mental health treatment and counseling services for psychiatric injury and post-traumatic stress disorder.

In addition, under LC § 4600.05(d) the legislature specifically required the Administrative Director (AD) to perform three tasks:

1. define the qualifications of a nurse case manager,
2. address the scope and timing of immediate support to be provided by a nurse case manager, and
3. develop the written notice employers must provide to claimants.

More than seven years have passed since LC § 4600.05(d) was enacted and the AD has yet to comply with the three legislative mandates. In the interim, we are fortunate that another act of terrorism has not occurred.
We certainly hope that nobody will ever need the information provided in today’s blog, but in the event of a future terrorism claim, our readers are urged to immediately contact this office for guidance. Please believe us when we say that a tremendous amount of supplemental work is necessary in addition to the basic requirements mentioned in today’s article. The Law Firm of Friedman + Bartoumian stands ready to assist employers and claims administrators in handling terrorism injury claims. In addition, we are uniquely qualified to assist in protecting the claims administrator against an inevitable barrage of complaints from a relentless news media whose purpose will be to publish sensational negative stories describing how the victims of terrorism are being victimized a second time by a heartless claims industry, even when the facts are inaccurate.