Legislative Update – AB 2732 serves as clean-up legislation for SB 863

Assembly Bill 2732, signed by Governor Brown on August 19, 2014, contains several practical clean-up provisions to the workers’ compensation reforms of 2012.  The amended Sections of the Labor Code are 4600, 4610.5, 4903, 4903.07, 4903.8 and 5410.  In short, the bill:

  1. Allows IMR request to be on a form up to two pages long. (4610.5(f)) Previously an IMR request was only permitted on a one page form.
  2. Permits medical-legal expenses to be pursued through the WCAB lien process. (4903(b)) Medical legal expenses were previously not included in this section.
  3. Spells out that an employer must reimburse a lien claimant for a lien filing or lien activation fee under specified circumstances.  (4903.07) Previously, the language did not specify which party would reimburse lien claimants for lien activation and filing fees.
  4. Clarifies that the preclusion against lien assignment only applies to liens filed before January 1, 2013.  (4903.8(a)(2))
  5. Makes technical and non-substantive changes to existing law.  (4600, 4610.5, 5410)

The bill made several non-controversial changes to the Labor Code, mainly serving to correct minor drafting defects of SB 863.