INTEREST ON AA FEES PAID MORE THAN 30 DAYS FROM THE OACR
In Christian v. Ring Security Agency (2022), case settled by C&R with AA fees held in trust pending a fee split agreement. When an agreement was reached 12 months later, the carrier issued payment in 3 days. Despite the quick payment, one AA asked for penalties and interest from date of OACR. At trial, the judge awarded both one year of interest and a delay penalty. Defense appealed.
The WCAB overturned the judge noting there was no basis for a penalty when the carrier could not have issued any payment until the fee agreement was received; however, the Board allowed the three days of interest because there was no interest waiver on the delayed fees, only for monies paid within 30 days of the OACR.
[COMMENT: The lesson learned is where AA fees are to be held in trust by the defense, the C&R should provide that interest is waived for 30 days from receipt of the AA fee agreement.]
TOP TEN WORK COMP INSURERS
Per data provided by the CWCI, the top 10 workers' compensation insurers in 2021 based upon premium volume were:
1) SCIF (11.9% market share),
2) Berkshire Hathaway (7.6%),
3) Amtrust Financial (6.3%),
4) Hartford Fire & Casualty (5.9%),
5) ICW Group (5.4%),
6) Travelers Group (5%),
7) Zurich Ins. Group (4.2%),
8) CHUBB Ltd Group (4.2%),
9) Fairfax Financial (3.4%) and
10) WR Berkley Group (2.5%).
