BILL NUMBER: AB 1696	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Assembly Member Bill Berryhill

                        JANUARY 28, 2010

   An act to amend Section 4703.5 of the Labor Code, relating to
workers' compensation.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   AB 1696, as introduced, Bill Berryhill. Death benefits: payment
duration.
   Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system,
administered by the Administrative Director of the Division of
Workers' Compensation, that generally requires employers to secure
the payment of workers' compensation for injuries incurred by their
employees that arise out of, and in the course of, employment.
Existing law provides certain methods for determining workers'
compensation benefits payable to a worker or his or her dependents
for purposes of temporary disability, permanent total disability,
permanent partial disability, and in the case of death. Existing law
provides that totally dependent minor children of the deceased worker
shall receive death benefits until the youngest child attains 18
years of age, or until the death of a child physically or mentally
incapacitated from earning, at a weekly rate of at least $224.
   This bill would extend death benefits until 19 years of age if the
child is still attending high school.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no.
State-mandated local program: no.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

  SECTION 1.  Section 4703.5 of the Labor Code is amended to read:
   4703.5.  In the case of one or more totally dependent minor
children, as defined in Section 3501, after payment of the amount
specified in Section 4702, and notwithstanding the maximum
limitations specified in Sections 4702 and 4703, payment of death
benefits shall continue until the youngest child attains  age
 18  years of age (19 years of age if the child is
still attending high school)  , or until the death of a child
physically or mentally incapacitated from earning, in the same manner
and amount as temporary total disability indemnity would have been
paid to the employee, except that no payment shall be made at a
weekly rate of less than two hundred twenty-four dollars ($224).