WCDefenseCA

Happy Wednesday, dear readers! As we are just on the cusp of another one of those major holidays, Thanksgiving to be precise, your humble blogger thought it might be useful to answer that question rooted deep, deep in your heart.

Can you, in good faith, enjoy Thanksgiving tomorrow, if there are deadlines to be met?  Can you live out your Fight Club fantasies during the Black Friday store rush when you might have to file something that day?

Time for another holiday post! 

Thanksgiving is a day that that we take to celebrate all that is good in life.  Often enough, we lose sight of the fact that there is a whole lot to be thankful for.  Thanksgiving is one of those days that we are reminded of it. 

So, is Thanksgiving a “holiday” in the sense that all legal deadlines are extended to the next business day?  Or is it a “holiday” in the same sense that your humble blogger’s birthday is a holiday… a day which is great but no one seems to acknowledge as pretty awesome?

Well, Government code 6700(a)(16)(A) seems to hold Thanksgiving as a holiday.  Government Code 19853(a) not only holds Thanksgiving as a holiday, but the day after Thanksgiving as a holiday as well.  The California Supreme Court likewise acknowledges both Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving as holidays, as does California Code of Civil Procedure section 135.

How does the WCAB approach this?  Well, in Pa’u v. Department of Forestry, a significant panel decision from 2018, the WCAB relied on the list of “Holidays” in Government Code 6700 to conclude that the day after Thanksgiving is a “working day.”

To your humble blogger’s mind at least, Thanksgiving should be treated as a holiday which extends the deadlines for filing and panel requests by one day.  The day after Thanksgiving, however, should not, and if your deadline fell on Thanksgiving or the day after, you should probably take action by that day to avoid the likely consequences.

Your humble blogger wishes you a safe and health Thanksgiving dear readers, full of joy, reflection, and hearty feasting!