John stated on Linked In: “Today is the day that we all look forward to in our lives.”

He started his career nearly 50 years ago in downtown San Francisco. Early on he worked for Kemper. Then he became an account representative and moved up to an Assistant Branch Manager at LJR Insurance Services starting in 1980. LJR, owned by Leonard Russo, was a third-party claims administrator that had offices in Los Angeles near LAX and also in the San Francisco Bay Area. John worked for Leonard Russo from 1980 to 1986.

Then, in 1987, John went to Zenith Insurance Company where he was a Branch Claims Manager in Orange County. Then, also in Orange County, by 1994, John went to work for California Casualty until just after the turn of the millenium in 2001.

In January of 2002 to a year and a half later, he worked for the 99 Cents Only Stores in the Commerce area of Los Angeles. He was the claims manager for the workers’ compensation and liability claims departments, which were self-insured and self-administered. John didn’t get a whole lot of cooperation from the management or ownership of that enterprise. It was tough dealing with that 99 Cents Only culture. So, he would think about that on his ride home on the train from the L.A. area location to his residence in Mission Viejo.

Then by mid-2003, not too much later, John got a big break with a tip from a former colleague that there was an opening for claims manager at Disney. Disney was also self-insured, self-administered like the 99 Cents Only Stores.

John got the job. That position worked out well for him and he stayed for 21 years until now.

John Riggs was dynamic in creatively developing Best Practices for fighting fraud. Starting in January of 2010, he began his pilot program of sending out an Explanation of Benefits notice with a comprehensive copy of the medical services rendered invoice to his injured employees at Disney as a method to create what John called “transparency” in the system. It is this transparency which he believed was most efficacious in preventing fraud from the get-go.

photo copyright Lonce Lamonte


John Riggs' photo from Linked In

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed John to the California State Fraud Assessment Commission in December of 2009. On November 16, 2010, John was made Vice Chair of the Fraud Assessment Commission; and Don Marshall, the Vice President of Special Investigations at Zenith, was elected Chair.

John was active in the Employers’ Fraud Task Force which was founded by Laura Clifford. John was also Chief Advisor to the Employers' Fraud Task Force.

The film premiere showing of “Decreasing Workers’ Comp Costs and Improving Outcomes”, a film production of the Employers' Fraud Task Force, took place at the Team Disney Auditorium at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California on April 23, 2012. John was the Emcee of the event. Laura Clifford was the Executive Producer of the film and was also in attendance as a primary hostess.

Christine Baker, Director of the Division of Industrial Relations, pricks up her ears on a listening tour of California. Here she is at the film premiere with John Maloch, left, and John Riggs, right. Photo copyright by Lonce Lamonte and adjustercom with all rights reserved.


John Riggs, the Manager of Workers' Compensation at The Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, was the Emcee for this premiere of the film "Decreasing Workers' Comp Costs and Improving Outcomes". Photo copyright by Lonce Lamonte and adjustercom with all rights reserved.

John Riggs was a member of the California Self-Insurers' Association, California Workers’ Compensation Institute, and Southern California Self-Insured Council.

Lonce Lamonte, journalist, adjustercom; lonce@adjustercom.com
Copyright by Lonce Lamonte and adjustercom with all rights reserved.