MICHAEL SULLIVAN & ASSOCIATES BLOG

On June 1, 2021, the 6th Appellate District Court of Appeal certified for publication its decision in Applied Materials et al. v. WCAB.

In that case, the 6th District Court of Appeal issued a lengthy 73-page decision addressing multiple issues raised by the parties. However, the decision is most significant for two issues:

1. Whether a worker's post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) arising from a treating physician's sexual misconduct is compensable under workers' compensation. It was.
2. Whether the Fitzpatrick case^[1] was wrongly decided. Fitzpatrick was important as it had held that the WCJ may not use LC 4662 on its own to make a finding of total permanent disability. This case and its finding were affirmed.

Because of the backlog of medical-legal evaluations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) adopted emergency regulations for medical-legal evaluations and reporting. The regulations became effective May 14, 2020, and originally were set to expire March 12, 2021. But they have been extended until Oct. 12, 2021.[1]

On March 19, 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 95 into law requiring most California employers to provide up to 80 hours of COVID-19 supplemental paid sick leave. The law went into effect on March 29, 2021, but the requirements applied retroactively to Jan. 1, 2021. So, if an employee was eligible, an employer retroactively must pay the COVID-19 supplemental leave when the employee requests it, either orally or in writing. We published a detailed exposition of this new law last week.

Under the California Torts Claim Act (CTCA), if an incident occurs with a defendant who is a governmental entity, state government, city, or other public entity, a proper notice of the claim must be filed within 6 months of the injury or accident. California Government Code section 905. This is known as an “administrative claim.” This claim form must be filed first before you can file a Complaint in court.

The Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) has created a new fee schedule for medical-legal services. The California Code of Regulations, Title 8, 9793, 9794 and 9795 are being revised. The regulations are available on the DWC website.

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the WCAB district offices have stopped conducting in-person trials since March 16, 2020. Beginning May 4, 2020, the WCAB began hearing trials on the cases-in-chief via individually assigned judges’ conference lines.

Since March 2020, to protect the health and safety of staff and the community, the Division of Workers' Compensation (DWC) closed the district offices for in-person filing. The DWC has only allowed documents to be filed via EAMS, JET file or by mail.