Two new commissioners seated

Notable Attorneys

The Pacifica City Council appointed Josh Gordon and Celeste Langille to the Pacifica Planning Commission Feb. 11.

Josh Gordon is an attorney with the San Francisco firm Morrison and Forester. He worked for a federal judge in San Francisco for one year and spent eight years with a top tier law firm in Palo Alto. He spent eight years working with autistic children in Santa Cruz.

Gordon is a member of the American Bar Association, Doctors Without Borders, Southern Poverty Law Center and the San Mateo County Bar Association.

On his application for the Planning Commission he wrote he wishes "to directly participate in the decisions affecting my community."

"I bring to the table an ability to rigorously analyze all sides of an issue, which is a product of my legal training and experience as a lawyer," he wrote.

Langille is an attorney who has represented environmental and community groups and has experience working with public agencies and officials. She is well versed in land-use laws, including CEQA, and real estate law. She has experience in document review and analysis.

She is a member of the California Bar Association and the Sierra Club.

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Workers’ Compensation Subrogation of Administrative Fees and Costs

When a worker covered by workers’ compensation makes a claim against a third party, the workers’ compensation insurance retains the right to subrogate against any recovery from that third party for all benefits paid to or on behalf of a claimant injured at work. When subrogating for more than basic medical and indemnity benefits, the Texas workers’ compensation subrogation statute provides that “the net amount recovered by a claimant in a third‑party action shall be used to reimburse the carrier for benefits, including medical benefits that have been paid for the compensable injury.” TX Labor Code § 417.002.

In fact, all 50 states provide for similar subrogation. However, none of them precisely outlines which payments or costs paid by a compensation carrier constitute “compensation” and can be recovered. The result is industry-wide confusion and an ongoing debate and argument with claimants’ attorneys over what can and can’t be included in a carrier’s lien for recovery purposes.

In addition to medical expenses, death benefits, funeral costs and/or indemnity benefits for lost wages and loss of earning capacity resulting from a compensable injury, workers’ compensation insurance carriers also expend considerable dollars for case management costs, medical bill audit fees, rehabilitation benefits, nurse case worker fees, and other similar fees. They also incur other expenses in conjunction with the handling and adjusting of workers’ compensation claims. Workers’ compensation carriers typically assert, of course, that, they are entitled to reimbursement for such expenditures when it recovers its workers’ compensation lien. Injured workers and their attorneys disagree.

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