Workers’ Compensation
Ca. Workers' Comp. Quarterly Vol. 37, No. 1, 2024
Content
- Compliance Managers of Workers'Compensation Claims Administrators Avoid the Radar of the DWC Audit and Enforcement Unit: Here Is Why
- Disability Accommodations at the DWC and WCAB
- In This Issue
- Long COVID and Work: An Update
- Note from the Editors
- Nunes I and II: A Revised Paradigm for the Use of Medical and Vocational Evidence to Determine PD and Apportionment
- "Take Home COVID" Cases: Where Are We Now?
- The Concept of Latency for Medical Legal Reporting
- Workers' Compensation Section 2023-2024 EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE ROSTER
- Labor Code Section 5500.5 and Latency: A Legal Perspective
Labor Code Section 5500.5 and Latency: A Legal Perspective
ANN MUNENE, ESQ.
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA
It is common for an injured worker who has sustained an injury over a period of time to present a situation that could potentially involve multiple employers. In those situations, various questions arise. Who is responsible? How many employers should be joined? What happens if all the employers can not be found or reached due to personal, business-related, or jurisdictional reasons? What ifdiscovery of the injury is many years following occupational exposure to the hazards that caused the disease or injury? How does an injured worker recover on an industrial injury claim in these varying circumstances?
These scenarios present an interplay between the last date of injurious exposure, date of injury, and latency. Latency is defined as the period of time between the injurious exposure and the manifestation of symptoms due to that injurious exposure. The challenges of establishing the facts and medical evidence pointing towards liability in these scenarios has been litigated over time. Case law and rules were established around these circumstances and eventually, Labor Code section 5500.5 was enacted by the Legislature. Labor Code section 5500.5(a) provides that: