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Senate Bill 171 Significantly Amends Eligibility Requirements for Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund Benefits

Posted by:  Sure S. Log
Topics: Statute of Limitations Apportionment Combined Values Chart SB 171 preexisting disability retroactive prophylactic work restriction labor disabling CVC medical-legal discovery SIBTF Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund

The Subsequent Injuries Benefits Trust Fund (SIBTF) provides additional permanent disability compensation to employees whose combined pre-existing and subsequent industrial disabilities equal 70 percent or more. The SIBTF serves the dual purpose of protecting severely disabled workers from inadequate compensation, and encouraging employers to hire workers with pre-existing disabilities. The latter ensures that employer liability is limited to the disability caused by the most recent industrial injury. To qualify for SIBTF benefits under former LC 4751, an employee was required to demonstrate a pre-existing permanent partial disability that was "labor disabling" before the subsequent industrial injury — a standard that, following Ferguson v. IAC (1958) 23 CCC 108, was interpreted broadly to include conditions that were ratable even if they did not result in an actual loss of earnings or interfere with the employee's specific job duties.

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Understanding Accumulation of Permanent Disability Under LC 4664(c)(1)

Posted by:  Sure S. Log
Topics: Apportionment Permanent Disability PD accumulation LC 4664(c)(1) prior award regions of the body LC 4664

Labor Code § 4664(c)(1) states, "The accumulation of all permanent disability awards issued with respect to any one region of the body in favor of one individual employee shall not exceed 100 percent over the employee’s lifetime unless the employee’s injury or illness is conclusively presumed to be total in character pursuant to Section 4662." The regions of the body for the purposes of the statute are:

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Special Report - Nunes v. State of California, Dept. of Motor Vehicles: Vocational Apportionment Invalid

Posted by:  Sure S. Log
Topics: Apportionment permanent total disability PTD Vocational Retraining Medical Evidence

It has long been recognized that an employee's ability to participate in vocational retraining is a significant factor that must be considered in assessing the worker's permanent disability. (LeBoeuf v. WCAB (1983) 48 CCC 587, 597.) An employee's inability to compete in the open labor market could support an award of permanent total disability. Even though vocational rehabilitation was repealed and replaced with the supplemental job displacement benefit, an employee still can rebut a scheduled rating by establishing that he or she was not amenable to rehabilitation. (Ogilvie v. WCAB (2011) 76 CCC 624.) That's commonly done with evidence from vocational experts.

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Accumulation of Permanent Disability Awards to Body Regions Under LC 4664(c)

Posted by:  Sure S. Log
Topics: Apportionment Permanent Disability Awards

When defendants seek to apportion an applicant's permanent disability, most often they look to apply Labor Code § 4663, which directs that apportionment be based on causation. LC 4663 requires a physician to consider factors both before and subsequent to the industrial injury, and the courts have not limited what can be apportioned under § 4663. They have allowed defendants to apportion to asymptomatic previous conditions, risk factors and even genetic factors. The only limitation has been that to apportion under § 4663, the physician's opinion about apportionment must be substantial evidence. Labor Code § 4664 is the other statute that addresses apportionment in the California workers' compensation system, and it allows apportionment to a previous award of permanent disability benefits. LC 4664(b) states, "If the applicant has received a prior award of permanent disability, it shall be conclusively presumed that the prior permanent disability exists at the time of any subsequent...

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