DWC Announces Appointment to Ethics Advisory Committee

Release Number: 2021-113
Date: November 2, 2021

Division of Workers’ Compensation (DWC) Administrative Director George Parisotto has appointed Chris Ellen Willmon to serve as a member of the Workers’ Compensation Ethics Advisory Committee. 

The appointment is effective December 1, 2021.  

Chris Ellen Willmon will fill the position designated for an attorney who formerly practiced before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board and who usually represented defendants, previously held by Jim Libien.

Willmon is a retired Workers’ Compensation Administrative Law Judge who served at the DWC Riverside District Office from 2006 to 2020. Prior to that she worked for State Compensation Insurance Fund and was in private practice as a defense attorney for over 25 years. She served on the Workers’ Compensation Law Advisory Commission and Workers’ Compensation Executive Committee for the State Bar Committee. 

The Ethics Advisory Committee, established in 1995 by Title 8, California Code of Regulations, section 9722, reviews all ethics complaints from the public against workers’ compensation administrative law judges.

The committee reviews all complaints without learning the names of complainants or judges, and then makes recommendations to the DWC Administrative Director and the Chief Judge. The members meet quarterly and serve without compensation.

The committee includes the following members: a member of the public representing organized labor; a member of the public representing insurers; a member of the public representing self-insured employers; an attorney who formerly practiced before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board and who usually represented insurers or employers; an attorney who formerly practiced before the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board and who usually represented applicants; a presiding judge; a workers’ compensation administrative law judge (WCALJ) or retired WCALJ; and two members of the public outside the workers’ compensation community.

A judicial ethics complaint form and instructions can be found on the forms page of the DWC website.