SPECIAL REPORT: State Comp System Still Big, Busy, Embattled

By Michael Whiteley, Eastern Bureau ChiefWhile New York state has taken steps to end patronage and shave costs, its 98-year-old workers' compensation system is still struggling to shake off a legacy of political infighting and anachronistic traditions within the largest comp bureaucracy in the nation.Interviews with attorneys, former members of the New York State Workers' Compensation Board (SWCB), state regulators, actuaries and representatives of the insurance industry depict a system that is driven by needless litigation, hamstrung by resistance to change and run by a board made up ...