Is this the Shape of Things to Come?

Wednesday, October 29, 2008 | 0

By Sam Gold

The U.S. 6th Circuit Court in Michigan has reversed a district court’s decision to dismiss a civil RICO complaint brought by six current and former employees of a trucking company after being ordered by the United States Supreme Court to reconsider their action.

Insurance adjuster Crawford & Company and employer Cassens Transport Co., are accused of colluding with Illinois physician Dr. Saul Margules to falsely deny legitimate injured workers' claims.

Is this the shape of things to come for the near future? Injured workers for years have accused state officials of simply looking the other way when evidence of these illegal acts has been brought to their attention. Are federal RICO actions the new strategy in our states to hold employers and insurers accountable for their fraudulent and illegal practices?

Is this where the occupationally injured will finally get their justice, in the Federal Courts where the Exclusive Remedy doctrines and state Government codes have no teeth whatsoever? It seems that state Workers’ Compensation systems conveniently never have any legal recourse to deal with these issues of employer and insurer fraud.

Why can’t those whose job it is to protect us from these vicious predators simply step forward and do their jobs? Now that’s the $64,000 dollar question, isn’t it?

A classic example is our new Insurance Commissioner, Steve Poizner who publicly states "zero tolerance for fraud" and then privately ignores prima facie cases of insurance fraud brought to the attention of his fraud investigators. Could it be that they look the other way because the insurance companies fund state fraud fighting efforts with mandatory surcharges on all insurance policies sold in the state?

As a matter of fact, when is the last time that you heard of a workers’ compensation insurance carrier indicted for fraud in California, despite the daily occurrence of these acts in the Workers’ Compensation courtrooms of California?

What happens to the false statements that these (medical opinion-for-hire) doctors make to support the insurance companies who know that their reports are simply not worth the paper that they are printed on? Oh wait a minute, they’re just opinions right? Not according to the defense attorneys who will swear that they are the gospel truth in front of our workers’ compensation judges.

Maybe it’s time to flood the federal courts with these cases until pressure is put on the state courts and the Attorney Generals to finally do the jobs that they were elected to and protect the citizens from these white collar scofflaws.

It’s time for the print, radio and television media to do their jobs as well and expose this rampant fraud and corruption.

Too many working Californians are having their lives and the lives of their families destroyed all in the name of corporate profits.

Sam Gold is a California injured worker and volunteer director of the National Organization of Injured Workers, whose goal is to stop the proliferation of fraud and corruption in the Workers Compensation systems of our country. He also produces the "Injured On The Job" television program which is seen on Public Access channels around California & the United States as well as video streamed on the internet.