Chapter 3. Applications And Answers of California Labor Code >> Division 4. >> Part 4. >> Chapter 3.

No pleadings other than the application and answer shall be required. Both shall be in writing and shall conform to forms prescribed by the appeals board in its rules of practice and procedure, simply but clearly and completely delineating all relevant matters of agreement and all issues of disagreement within the jurisdiction of the appeals board, and providing for the furnishing of any additional information as the appeals board may properly determine necessary to expedite its hearing and determination of the claim. The amendment of this section made during the 1993 portion of the 1993-94 Regular Session shall apply to all applications filed on or after January 1, 1994. Notwithstanding Section 5401, except where a claim form has been filed for an injury occurring on or after January 1, 1990, and before January 1, 1994, the filing of an application for adjudication and not the filing of a claim form shall establish the jurisdiction of the appeals board and shall commence proceedings before the appeals board for the collection of benefits.

(a) The appeals board shall establish uniform district office procedures, uniform forms, and uniform time of court settings for all district offices of the appeals board. No district office of the appeals board or workers' compensation administrative law judge shall require forms or procedures other than as established by the appeals board. A workers' compensation administrative law judge who violates this section may be subject to disciplinary proceedings.
  (b) The appeals board shall establish uniform court procedures and uniform forms for all other proceedings of the appeals board.

(a) Except as otherwise provided in Section 5500.6, liability for occupational disease or cumulative injury claims filed or asserted on or after January 1, 1978, shall be limited to those employers who employed the employee during a period of four years immediately preceding either the date of injury, as determined pursuant to Section 5412, or the last date on which the employee was employed in an occupation exposing him or her to the hazards of the occupational disease or cumulative injury, whichever occurs first. Commencing January 1, 1979, and thereafter on the first day of January for each of the next two years, the liability period for occupational disease or cumulative injury shall be decreased by one year so that liability is limited in the following manner:

For claims filed or The period asserted on or after: shall be: January 1, 1979........... three years January 1, 1980........... two years January 1, 1981 and one year thereafter................

In the event that none of the employers during the above referenced periods of occupational disease or cumulative injury are insured for workers' compensation coverage or an approved alternative thereof, liability shall be imposed upon the last year of employment exposing the employee to the hazards of the occupational disease or cumulative injury for which an employer is insured for workers' compensation coverage or an approved alternative thereof. Any employer held liable for workers' compensation benefits as a result of another employer's failure to secure the payment of compensation as required by this division shall be entitled to reimbursement from the employers who were unlawfully uninsured during the last year of the employee's employment, and shall be subrogated to the rights granted to the employee against the unlawfully uninsured employers under the provisions of Article 1 (commencing with Section 3700) of Chapter 4 of Part 1 of Division 4. If, based upon all the evidence presented, the appeals board or workers' compensation judge finds the existence of cumulative injury or occupational disease, liability for the cumulative injury or occupational disease shall not be apportioned to prior or subsequent years; however, in determining the liability, evidence of disability due to specific injury, disability due to nonindustrial causes, or disability previously compensated for by way of a findings and award or order approving compromise and release, or a voluntary payment of disability, may be admissible for purposes of apportionment.
  (b) Where a claim for compensation benefits is made on account of an occupational disease or cumulative injury which may have arisen out of more than one employment, the application shall state the names and addresses of all employers liable under subdivision (a), the places of employment, and the approximate periods of employment where the employee was exposed to the hazards of the occupational disease or cumulative injury. If the application is not so prepared or omits necessary and proper employers, any interested party, at or prior to the first hearing, may request the appeals board to join as defendant any necessary or proper party. If the request is made prior to the first hearing on the application, the appeals board shall forthwith join the employer as a party defendant and cause a copy of the application together with a notice of the time and place of hearing to be served upon the omitted employer; provided, the notice can be given within the time specified in this division. If the notice cannot be timely given or if the motion for joinder is made at the time of the first hearing, then the appeals board or the workers' compensation judge before whom the hearing is held, if it is found that the omitted employer named is a necessary or proper party, may order a joinder of the party and continue the hearing so that proper notice may be given to the party or parties so joined. Only one continuance shall be allowed for the purpose of joining additional parties. Subsequent to the first hearing the appeals board shall join as a party defendant any additional employer when it appears that the employer is a proper party, but the liability of the employer shall not be determined until supplemental proceedings are instituted.
  (c) In any case involving a claim of occupational disease or cumulative injury occurring as a result of more than one employment within the appropriate time period set forth in subdivision (a), the employee making the claim, or his or her dependents, may elect to proceed against any one or more of the employers. Where such an election is made, the employee must successfully prove his or her claim against any one of the employers named, and any award which the appeals board shall issue awarding compensation benefits shall be a joint and several award as against any two or more employers who may be held liable for compensation benefits. If, during the pendency of any claim wherein the employee or his or her dependents has made an election to proceed against one or more employers, it should appear that there is another proper party not yet joined, the additional party shall be joined as a defendant by the appeals board on the motion of any party in interest, but the liability of the employer shall not be determined until supplemental proceedings are instituted. Any employer joined as a defendant subsequent to the first hearing or subsequent to the election provided herein shall not be entitled to participate in any of the proceedings prior to the appeal board's final decision, nor to any continuance or further proceedings, but may be permitted to ascertain from the employee or his or her dependents such information as will enable the employer to determine the time, place, and duration of the alleged employment. On supplemental proceedings, however, the right of the employer to full and complete examination or cross-examination shall not be restricted.
  (d) (1) In the event a self-insured employer which owns and operates a work location in the State of California, sells or has sold the ownership and operation of the work location pursuant to a sale of a business or all or part of the assets of a business to another self-insured person or entity after January 1, 1974, but before January 1, 1978, and all the requirements of subparagraphs (A) to (D), inclusive, exist, then the liability of the employer-seller and employer-buyer, respectively, for cumulative injuries suffered by employees employed at the work location immediately before the sale shall, until January 1, 1986, be governed by the provisions of this section which were in effect on the date of that sale.
  (A) The sale constitutes a material change in ownership of such work location.
  (B) The person or entity making the purchase continues the operation of the work location.
  (C) The person or entity becomes the employer of substantially all of the employees of the employer-seller.
  (D) The agreement of sale makes no special provision for the allocation of liabilities for workers' compensation between the buyer and the seller.
  (2) For purposes of this subdivision:
  (A) "Work location" shall mean any fixed place of business, office, or plant where employees regularly work in the trade or business of the employer.
  (B) A "material change in ownership" shall mean a change in ownership whereby the employer-seller does not retain, directly or indirectly, through one or more corporate entities, associations, trusts, partnerships, joint ventures, or family members, a controlling interest in the work location.
  (3) This subdivision shall have no force or effect on or after January 1, 1986, unless otherwise extended by the Legislature prior to that date, and it shall not have any force or effect as respects an employee who, subsequent to the sale described in paragraph (1) and prior to the date of his or her application for compensation benefits has been filed, is transferred to a different work location by the employer-buyer.
  (4) If any provision of this subdivision or the application thereof to any person or circumstances is held invalid, that invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of this subdivision which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end the provisions of this subdivision are severable.
  (e) At any time within one year after the appeals board has made an award for compensation benefits in connection with an occupational disease or cumulative injury, any employer held liable under the award may institute proceedings before the appeals board for the purpose of determining an apportionment of liability or right of contribution. The proceeding shall not diminish, restrict, or alter in any way the recovery previously allowed the employee or his or her dependents, but shall be limited to a determination of the respective contribution rights, interest or liabilities of all the employers joined in the proceeding, either initially or supplementally; provided, however, if the appeals board finds on supplemental proceedings for the purpose of determining an apportionment of liability or of a right of contribution that an employer previously held liable in fact has no liability, it may dismiss the employer and amend its original award in such manner as may be required.
  (f) If any proceeding before the appeals board for the purpose of determining an apportionment of liability or of a right of contribution where any employee incurred a disability or death resulting from silicosis in underground metal mining operations, the determination of the respective rights and interests of all of the employers joined in the proceedings either initially or supplementally shall be as follows:
  (1) All employers whose underground metal mining operations resulted in a silicotic exposure during the period of the employee's employment in those operations shall be jointly and severally liable for the payment of compensation and of medical, surgical, legal and hospital expense which may be awarded to the employee or his or her estate or dependents as the result of disability or death resulting from or aggravated by the exposure.
  (2) In making its determination in the supplemental proceeding for the purpose of determining an apportionment of liability or of a right of contribution of percentage liabilities of the various employers engaged in underground metal mining operations the appeals board shall consider as a rebuttal presumption that employment in underground work in any mine for a continuous period of more than three calendar months will result in a silicotic exposure for the employee so employed during the period of employment if the underground metal mine was driven or sunk in rock having a composition which will result in dissemination of silica or silicotic dust particles when drilled, blasted, or transported.
  (g) Any employer shall be entitled to rebut the presumption by showing to the satisfaction of the appeals board, or the workers' compensation judge, that the mining methods used by the employer in the employee's place of employment did not result during his or her employment in the creation of silica dust in sufficient amount or concentration to constitute a silicotic hazard. Dust counts, competently made, at intervals and in locations as meet the requirements of the Division of Occupational Safety and Health for safe working conditions may be received as evidence of the amount and concentration of silica dust in the workings where the counts have been made at the time when they were made. The appeals board may from time to time, as its experience may indicate proper, promulgate orders as to the frequency with which dust counts shall be taken in different types of workings in order to justify their acceptance as evidence of the existence or nonexistence of a silicotic hazard in the property where they have been taken.
  (h) The amendments to this section adopted at the 1959 Regular Session of the Legislature shall operate retroactively, and shall apply retrospectively to any cases pending before the appeals board or courts. From and after the date this section becomes effective no payment shall be made out of the fund used for payment of the additional compensation provided for in Section 4751, or out of any other state funds, in satisfaction of any liability heretofore incurred or hereafter incurred, except awards which have become final without regard to the continuing jurisdiction of the appeals board on that effective date, and the state and its funds shall be without liability therefor. This subdivision shall not in any way effect a reduction in any benefit conferred or which may be conferred upon any injured employee or his dependents.
  (i) The amendments to this section adopted at the 1977 Regular Session of the Legislature shall apply to any claims for benefits under this division which are filed or asserted on or after January 1, 1978, unless otherwise specified in this section.

Liability for occupational disease or cumulative injury which results from exposure solely during employment as an employee, as defined in subdivision (d) of Section 3351, shall be limited to those employers in whose employment the employee was exposed to the hazards of the occupational disease or cumulative injury during the last day on which the employee was employed in an occupation exposing the employee to the hazards of the disease or injury. In the event that none of the employers of the last day of hazardous employment is insured for workers' compensation liability, that liability, shall be imposed upon the last employer exposing the employee to the hazards of the occupational disease or cumulative injury who has secured workers' compensation insurance coverage or an approved alternative thereto. If, based upon all the evidence presented, the appeals board or the workers' compensation judge finds the existence of cumulative injury or occupational disease, liability for the cumulative injury or occupational disease shall not be apportioned to prior employers. However, in determining liability, evidence of disability due to specific injury, disability due to non-work-related causes, or disability previously compensated for by way of a findings and award or order approving compromise and release, or a voluntary payment of disability, may be admissible for purposes of apportionment.

The application may be filed with the appeals board by any party in interest, his attorney, or other representative authorized in writing. A representative who is not an attorney licensed by the State Bar of this state shall notify the appeals board in writing that he or she is not an attorney licensed by the State Bar of this state. Upon the filing of the application, the appeals board shall, where the applicant is represented by an attorney or other representative, serve a conformed copy of the application showing the date of filing and the case number upon applicant's attorney or representative. The applicant's attorney or representative shall, upon receipt of the conformed copy, forthwith serve a copy of the conformed application upon all other parties to the claim. If the applicant is unrepresented, a copy thereof shall forthwith be served upon all adverse parties by the appeals board.

(a) The application for adjudication of claim shall be filed in any of the following locations:
  (1) In the county where the injured employee or dependent of a deceased employee resides on the date of filing.
  (2) In the county where the injury allegedly occurred, or, in cumulative trauma and industrial disease claims, where the last alleged injurious exposure occurred.
  (3) In the county where the employee's attorney maintains his or her principal place of business, if the employee is represented by an attorney.
  (b) If the county selected for filing has more than one office of the appeals board, the application shall be filed at any location of the appeals board within that county that meets the criteria specified in subdivision (a). The written consent of the employee, or dependent of a deceased employee, to the selected venue site shall be filed with the application.
  (c) If the venue site where the application is to be filed is the county where the employee's attorney maintains his or her principal place of business, the attorney for the employee shall indicate that venue site when forwarding the information request form required by Section 5401.5. The employer shall have 30 days from receipt of the information request form to object to the selected venue site. Where there is an employer objection to a venue site under paragraph (3) of subdivision (a), then the application shall be filed pursuant to either paragraph (1) or (2) of subdivision (a).
  (d) If there is no appeals board office in the county where venue is permitted under subdivision (a), the application shall be filed at the appeals board office nearest the residence on the date of filing of the injured employee or dependent of a deceased employee, or the nearest place where the injury allegedly occurred, or, in cumulative trauma and industrial disease claims, where the last injurious exposure occurred, or nearest the location where the attorney of the employee maintains his or her principal place of business, unless the employer objects under subdivision (c).

(a) An applicant or defendant may petition the appeals board for a change of venue and a change of venue shall be granted for good cause. The reasons for the change of venue shall be specifically set forth in the request for change of venue.
  (b) If a change of venue is requested for the convenience of witnesses, the names and addresses of these witnesses and the substance of their testimony shall be specifically set forth in the request for change of venue.

(a) Except as provided in subdivisions (b) and (d), the hearing shall be held not less than 10 days, and not more than 60 days, after the date a declaration of readiness to proceed, on a form prescribed by the appeals board, is filed. If a claim form has been filed for an injury occurring on or after January 1, 1990, and before January 1, 1994, an application for adjudication shall accompany the declaration of readiness to proceed.
  (b) The administrative director shall establish a priority calendar for issues requiring an expedited hearing and decision. A hearing shall be held and a determination as to the rights of the parties shall be made and filed within 30 days after the declaration of readiness to proceed is filed if the issues in dispute are any of the following, provided that if an expedited hearing is requested, no other issue may be heard until the medical provider network dispute is resolved:
  (1) The employee's entitlement to medical treatment pursuant to Section 4600, except for treatment issues determined pursuant to Sections 4610 and 4610.5.
  (2) Whether the injured employee is required to obtain treatment within a medical provider network.
  (3) A medical treatment appointment or medical-legal examination.
  (4) The employee's entitlement to, or the amount of, temporary disability indemnity payments.
  (5) The employee's entitlement to compensation from one or more responsible employers when two or more employers dispute liability as among themselves.
  (6) Any other issues requiring an expedited hearing and determination as prescribed in rules and regulations of the administrative director.
  (c) The administrative director shall establish a priority conference calendar for cases in which the employee is represented by an attorney or is or was employed by an illegally uninsured employer and the issues in dispute are employment or injury arising out of employment or in the course of employment. The conference shall be conducted by a workers' compensation administrative law judge within 30 days after the declaration of readiness to proceed. If the dispute cannot be resolved at the conference, a trial shall be set as expeditiously as possible, unless good cause is shown why discovery is not complete, in which case status conferences shall be held at regular intervals. The case shall be set for trial when discovery is complete, or when the workers' compensation administrative law judge determines that the parties have had sufficient time in which to complete reasonable discovery. A determination as to the rights of the parties shall be made and filed within 30 days after the trial.
  (d) (1) In all cases, a mandatory settlement conference, except a lien conference or a mandatory settlement lien conference, shall be conducted not less than 10 days, and not more than 30 days, after the filing of a declaration of readiness to proceed. If the dispute is not resolved, the regular hearing, except a lien trial, shall be held within 75 days after the declaration of readiness to proceed is filed.
  (2) The settlement conference shall be conducted by a workers' compensation administrative law judge or by a referee who is eligible to be a workers' compensation administrative law judge or eligible to be an arbitrator under Section 5270.5. At the mandatory settlement conference, the referee or workers' compensation administrative law judge shall have the authority to resolve the dispute, including the authority to approve a compromise and release or issue a stipulated finding and award, and if the dispute cannot be resolved, to frame the issues and stipulations for trial. The appeals board shall adopt any regulations needed to implement this subdivision. The presiding workers' compensation administrative law judge shall supervise settlement conference referees in the performance of their judicial functions under this subdivision.
  (3) If the claim is not resolved at the mandatory settlement conference, the parties shall file a pretrial conference statement noting the specific issues in dispute, each party's proposed permanent disability rating, and listing the exhibits, and disclosing witnesses. Discovery shall close on the date of the mandatory settlement conference. Evidence not disclosed or obtained thereafter shall not be admissible unless the proponent of the evidence can demonstrate that it was not available or could not have been discovered by the exercise of due diligence prior to the settlement conference.
  (e) In cases involving the Director of Industrial Relations in his or her capacity as administrator of the Uninsured Employers Fund, this section shall not apply unless proof of service, as specified in paragraph (1) of subdivision (d) of Section 3716, has been filed with the appeals board and provided to the Director of Industrial Relations, valid jurisdiction has been established over the employer, and the fund has been joined.
  (f) Except as provided in subdivision (a), this section shall apply irrespective of the date of injury.

A continuance of any conference or hearing required by Section 5502 shall not be favored, but may be granted by a workers' compensation judge upon any terms as are just upon a showing of good cause. When determining a request for continuance, the workers' compensation judge shall take into consideration the complexity of the issues, the diligence of the parties, and the prejudice incurred on the part of any party by reasons of granting or denying a continuance.

The person so applying shall be known as the applicant and the adverse party shall be known as the defendant.

A notice of the time and place of hearing shall be served upon the applicant and all adverse parties and may be served either in the manner of service of a summons in a civil action or in the same manner as any notice that is authorized or required to be served under the provisions of this division.

If any defendant desires to disclaim any interest in the subject matter of the claim in controversy, or considers that the application is in any respect inaccurate or incomplete, or desires to bring any fact, paper, or document to the attention of the appeals board as a defense to the claim or otherwise, he may, within 10 days after the service of the application upon him, file with or mail to the appeals board his answer in such form as the appeals board may prescribe, setting forth the particulars in which the application is inaccurate or incomplete, and the facts upon which he intends to rely. A copy of the answer shall be forthwith served upon all adverse parties. Evidence upon matters not pleaded by answer shall be allowed only upon the terms and conditions imposed by the appeals board or referee holding the hearing.

If the defendant fails to appear or answer, no default shall be taken against him, but the appeals board shall proceed to the hearing of the matter upon the terms and conditions which it deems proper. A defendant failing to appear or answer, or subsequently contending that no service was made upon him, or claiming to be aggrieved in any other manner by want of notice of the pendency of the proceedings, may apply to the appeals board for relief substantially in accordance with the provisions of Section 473 of the Code of Civil Procedure. The appeals board may afford such relief. No right to relief, including the claim that the findings and award of the appeals board or judgment entered thereon are void upon their face, shall accrue to such defendant in any court unless prior application is made to the appeals board in accordance with this section. In no event shall any petition to any court be allowed except as prescribed in Sections 5950 and 5951.

If an application shows upon its face that the applicant is not entitled to compensation, the appeals board may, after opportunity to the applicant to be heard orally or to submit his claim or argument in writing dismiss the application without any hearing thereon. Such dismissal may be upon the motion of the appeals board or upon motion of the adverse party. The pendency of such motion or notice of intended dismissal shall not, unless otherwise ordered by the appeals board, delay the hearing on the application upon its merits.