Legal Question in Workers Comp in California

I was injured on the job (teacher in CA) fall of 2013. My school district denied the claim, and after five years, it was finally settled in April 2018. The injury was determined to be industrial. I was granted medical and permanent disability. My lawyer never filed for temporary disability, though I was out of work for 5 1/2 months. He claims that as a teacher, I am not entitled to temporary disability through worker's comp, that the education code takes care of my absences differently. I lost 33 days of sick leave and thousands of dollars in wage deductions. I had my own private disability insurance which helped, but shouldn't I be reimbursed and given temporary disability through worker's comp since the judge determined this to be work-related?


Asked on 10/02/18, 2:09 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Nancy Wallace Nancy Wallace Atty at Law

IF you had proceeded to an actual TRIAL and a judge wrote a decision that you were injured on the job, then the Education Code continues your salary for a number of days and then you would be due TEmporary Disability Indemnity. Instead, your district offered you a compromise wherein you waived your rights to pursue the thousands in wage deductions, sick leave and lost TTD in exchange for the district accepting liability and agreeing to permanent disability. If you did not wish to accept this, you needed to tell your lawyer "NO!" and proceed to trial and get a finding by the judge you were due Education Code payments from the beginning of the TTD period followed by TTD payments. (THIS IS why liability should have been taken to trial no later than 2014 for a finding of whether the injury was industrial or not.)

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Answered on 10/03/18, 7:46 am


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