Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

You have a couple of options here. First, you may be able to reopen your earlier claim, as long as you do so within 5 years of the original date of injury. The earlier date of injury, and the length of time you received temporary disability benefits, will determine whether you are entitled to any temporary disability benefits after reopening.

The second option is to file a new claim if you suffered an additional injury. The insurance carrier has 90 days to accept or deny your claim. You may wish to file what is known as a cumulative trauma claim, beginning the day after the date of the earlier claim and ending on your last day of work. If the insurance company determines that you have a new claim, you are entitled to Temporary Disability Benefits if an authorized physician takes you off work. Or if the physician gives you work restrictions that your employer does not, or cannot, accommodate.

In either case, you can filed for State Disability Insurance (SDI). Generally, SDI benefits are only for those injured off the job. However, they will often pay benefits during workers' compensation investigation or delay. Be sure to put that you suffered a work related injury on the form.

To cover all of your bases, you could do all of the above and see what shakes out. Your case is somewhat complicated so you may wish to consult a workers' compensation attorney.

If your employer has no modified work for you you can either apply for temporary disability benefits for up to 104 weeks or for SDI thay pays for 52 weeks. You have to reopen your case or file a new claim. Feel free to call us at 213.388.7070 for a free consultation.