Dear readers and brave citizens of California’s Workers’ Compensation system… it’s time for a self-check.  For all the fresh feel and sweet taste this blog offers, one can’t help but be tainted with some residue of that substance known as cynicism.  So, now that you’ve all been reading for so long, it’s time to see if you’ve become borderline cynics like your faithful blogger.

So this is how the test works:  I will lay out some simple facts of a case, and you guess whether the Workers’ Compensation Judge found the injury compensable.

Applicant butcher files a claim for a specific injury and a cumulative trauma, the specific having been allegedly sustained in April of 2009, and the cumulative trauma allegedly spanning the time from April to August of 2009.

The injury was denied by the defendant, and at trial applicant testified that she (1) didn’t remember seeking treatment before August 2009 and (2) didn’t remember reporting the injury or telling anyone about it before August 2009.

Applicant’s supervisor testified that applicant had shown no sign of any injury prior to August of 2009, and that applicant missed no work during that period either.  However, the supervisor also testified that in mid-August, the employer instituted a new policy, prohibiting employees from eating behind the deli counter, and applicant told him that she “felt singled out and that she was going to sue her employer.”

At her lunch break, applicant left work and never came back…

So, dear readers… did the WCJ find the “injury” compensable?  I’m sorry to tell you, you must choose between being wrong or being a cynic.  The WCJ found the injury compensable.

In the case of Denise Hernandez v. Big Buy Food, the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board granted Defendant’s petition for reconsideration, finding that “the overwhelming weight of the evidence [indicated] that applicant did not sustain an injury.”

Time and time again, experience shows us that California Workers’ Compensation Defense practice requires one eye be kept on the Appeals Board deadlines for filing a Petition for Reconsideration when heading to trial.