adjustercom.com
adjustercom.net
The Stockwell Firm adjustercom publishes your thoughts and ideas...
Home
News

 Features


Other Claims News
People
Forums
The Comp Examiner Directory
The Liability Adjuster Directory
Service Provider Directory
Post a Job
View Jobs
Resumes
View Resumes
Contact Us

Adjusters Friend

jobs.adjustercom.com

 

Place Your Banner Here With A Click

 

adjustercom.net - FraudFromInsideAndOutsideTheCourtroom

 


Welcome Guest! | Login | Register with adjustercom
 
 
News

News Archive

Email a Friend Email A Friend

More News

March 25, 2024
California Division of Workers' Compensation Posts Adjustments to Official Medical Fee Schedule (Physician Services / Non-Physician Practitioner Services)

March 19, 2024
Nearly half of all litigated workers' compensation claims in the Los Angeles basin are cumulative trauma claims.

March 7, 2024
California's Division of Workers' Compensation Posts Adjustment to Official Medical Fee Schedule (Ambulance Services)

March 6, 2024
Accident Claims The Life of AdminSure Claims Adjuster Alexis Wicker



San Bernardino Prosecutor’s Head In Sand When Charging An Undocumented Immigrant With Identity Theft When Filing For Comp Benefits Using Fake SSN.
By Jorge Alexandria - April 28, 2014

The good old days, more often than not, nearly always look better 20 or 30 years after the fact; unless you grew up like me, impecunious in my youth in Mexico and for a brief moment in time an illegal alien in this good old United States of America. Although my family and I were poor, living in the U.S. at least had the promise of a comfortable secure middle class standard of living if one was willing to put in long hours and work hard. 
 
My father worked very hard indeed; taking up menial jobs that would otherwise not be filled but for his undocumented status. These types of jobs had low wages, few fringe benefits, little security, and in essence were of a dead-end nature. Unfortunately, that was all that was available in those days without a proper social security card. To this day I marvel at his willpower to simply exist.
 
Today, no one gets a job or a bank account without a social security card. No one. Those that are illegal or undocumented have to resort to using a forged Social Security Number -- but with one’s own name -- to obtain employment. This is how Blanca Rodriguez, 22, got a job as a janitor at Ontario Mills Mall, in Ontario, California, for the Interstate Cleaning Corporation. Then she had the misfortune of getting injured on the job sustaining low back, knees, and calves injuries. 
 
 
The record indicates that the injury arose out of and in the course and scope of her employment, so the young Ms. Rodriguez is entitled to the benefits afforded an injured employee, right?  Well, not so fast. Her employer, Interstate Cleaning Corp., had a sudden change of character and does not want to be seen rewarding people when they are in the country illegally and/or when they lie on their job applications. After all, they reasoned, workers’ compensation benefits can be denied for a variety of reasons, why not for obtaining a job under false pretenses? Their line of thinking prevailed on their work comp insurance carrier who in turn referred the matter to the San Bernardino District Attorney’s Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit for further investigation in April 2013. Charges for identity theft were filed April 14, 2014, and the following day, Rodriguez was taken into custody by District Attorney Investigators and transported to West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga where bail was set at $100,000. If convicted on all counts, Rodriguez faces 3 years in County Prison and then is subject to deportation when she finishes serving her time.
 
When I first heard about this case, I did not initially side with the injured employee. But I also did not initially blame the employer. However, the more I thought about it, the more I moved over to the Rodriguez side. This after all is a standard mutually beneficial employer/employee relationship: the company hired, paid the employee; the employee worked, got money. Everybody benefited. Until Rodriguez got injured on the job and that accident had nothing to do with her immigration status. Shame on the employer for claiming now that it does. Shame on the San Bernardino District Attorney’s Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit for trying to justify their existence and/or grant funds on this case which has absolutely nothing to do with work comp fraud. It is the employer, Interstate Cleaning Corp., that should have the book thrown at it. First, for maintaining the employment relationship with the employee when they knew she was illegal. And I suspect they knew this from the get go or not long thereafter.  If there is fault here it rests with Interstate Cleaning Corp. for not properly vetting Ms. Rodriguez during the employment process. They should not be rewarded for hiring illegally. The line needs to get drawn at the point where the undocumented status became known to them. 
 
 
Second, the District Attorney’s Workers’ Compensation Fraud Unit should look closely at Interstate Cleaning Corp. and charge them for improperly withholding and then denying workers’ compensation benefits altogether for a legitimate on the job injury that would otherwise be compensable (immigration and social security card status aside). Does the law not apply to the employer as well? 
 
 If Rodriguez’s case moves forward I suspect the Court will follow this line of reasoning. 
  
Undocumented workers are fundamentally different from identity criminals trying to steal credit. An immigrant who uses a false Social Security number to get a job doesn’t intend to harm anyone, and it makes no sense to spend our tax dollars to imprison them for three years.
 
At the heart of all these cases is a simple question: Does the mere use of an anonymous victim's SSN break identity theft laws?
 
 
The most recent judicial body to take on the issue, the Colorado Supreme Court, ruled last month that a man who used his real name but someone else's Social Security number to obtain a car loan was not guilty of "criminal impersonation," overturning convictions by lower courts. That follows a ruling last year by the U.S. Supreme Court that a Mexican man who gave a false SSN to get a job at an Illinois steel plant could not be convicted under federal identity theft laws because he did not knowingly use
All they want is the social security number so they can get menial jobs...
another person's identifying number. The ruling overturned an opinion by a federal appeals court in St. Louis -- and contradicted earlier findings by circuit courts in the Southeast, upper Midwest and the Gulf states. Keep in mind that illegal aliens commonly buy or copy the numbers, which are rarely checked for who they belong to as they have no intention of taking the identity of that person. All they want is the social security number so they can get menial jobs that no legal resident is willing to accept (even in this economy; the legal resident prefers to beg at intersections or freeway onramps). In a typical year, some 7 million to 10 million illegal workers pay taxes using names and numbers that don't match IRS and Social Security Agency data. 
 
So assuming the San Bernardino County Prosecutor did his due diligence and researched the above case law, as I did, why would he misapply the impersonation laws and charge Ms. Rodriguez? Could it be for grandstanding or does he really just not get it? Either way it is a real cowboy mentality. 
 
 Ms. Rodriguez arraignment is scheduled for June 17, 2014, in Rancho Cucamonga Superior Court. On that day this legitimately injured worker will walk the halls of justice with only her dignity to fill her pockets. Justice may elude her.   
 

Jorge Alexandría is a U.S. Army veteran who received his B.A. in Political Science from Cal State Los Angeles, and graduated from Cal Poly Pomona with a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.

He holds both a California Workers Compensation Claims Professional (WCCP) designation and the State of California’s Self-Insured Administrator’s License. He has more than 20 years of experience in claims handling, supervision, and risk management.

He currently practices federal workers’ compensation of maritime interest.

He can be reached at
Riskletter@mail.com. The views and knowledge expressed in this article are Jorge Alexandría’s alone.


© adjustercom. All rights reserved. 

Join us on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/adjustercom  Become a friend!  Follow on Twitter @loncelamon  

 
 

 Hot Jobs


Adjuster / Examiner
Claims Examiner
Santa Ana Unified School District
Santa Ana, CA
View All Jobs

The J Morey Company

Build Your Brand

jobs.adjustercom.com

The J Morey Company


    Copyright 2024 | Privacy Policy | Feedback |  

Web site engine's code is Copyright © 2003 by PHP-Nuke. All Rights Reserved. PHP-Nuke is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL license.