Legal Question in Personal Injury in California

If you are still having pain and feel not ready or able to assume your duties, you should discuss that with your doctor. If you feel the doctor is not advancing your interests or health care needs, you should seek a second opinion and consult with a workers compensation lawyer.

Your legal recourse against the company is your workers' compensation claim. The question is whether you have a recourse against the Vice President. Generally no if he is an employee of the company also... Your lawyer might be able to increase your compensation for permanent disability by making a serious and wilful allegation against in company in the workers' comp case because bringing dogs to work appears to create a dangerous environment. Most likely it is not worth it to make such a claim. You would very likely lose that additional claim plus you will not be welcome at the co. since the serious and willful is paid by the co. and not by the workers' comp insurance. If you want to continue working there the best thing is just to go with your workers' comp claim and ask the doctor for additional time off or modified duty such as reduced hours or light duty work. If you do not fully recover you will be entitled to partial permanent disability indemnity when you recover as much as possible. If you do not fully recover within a month you should see a workers' compensation attorney. Don't expect much compensation in a workers' comp claim since benefits were reduced to ridiculous levels in 2005.