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]

Register to Attend a Webinar on This Topic — January 20, 2021 at 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Part 22: COVID-19 Update –
Vaccines: Employer Mandates and Compensability

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.