California's 90-year-old workers' compensation system is designed to provide injured workers immediate and speedy relief without re- sorting to a formal trial. Instead of involving judges and the civil courts, injured workers may simply file a claim through a no-fault, administrative process. In theory, the process for delivering workers' compensation benefits, such as medical care, replacement of lost wages, and vocational, rehabilitation services, is precisely defined in the California Labor Code and other regulations and is mostly automatic. In reality, how- ever, disputes often arise over issues such as whether an injury in fact occurred at work, whether medical treatment is necessary, and the extent to which an injury poses long-term consequences for the worker. All such disputes are resolved in a single forum: the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB). Of the one million workers' compensation claims filed in California every year, about 200,000 end up at the WCAB.

For more than two decades, the California workers' compensation courts have been criticized for being slow, expensive, and procedurally inconsistent. In response to these concerns, the Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation engaged the RAND Institute for Civil Justice to conduct a top-to-bottom review of the courts. The research team found that the courts' problems stem largely from severe understaffing, the failure to upgrade their management information system, and a lack of clear guidance and coordination in the governing rules and procedures. (This document is an Executive Summary of the full report on this study, Improving Dispute Resolution for California's Injured Workers, MR-1425-ICJ, 2003. This Executive Summary includes a CD that contains the text of the full report.)

Includes publications previously listed in the supplements to the Index of selected publications of the Rand Corporation (Oct. 1962-Feb. 1963).